Let It Be Me
by iluvlove87
Summary: Emma is in an abusive relationship, but her friends and family are too busy to see it. The only person who does notice is the very last one Emma thought would ever actually care. Jay wants to help, but Emma is convinced that everything is fine. He tries to get through to her but it might not be soon enough.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello all! This is my second ever fanfic. You may have read my other one called Listen to Your Heart, and like that one, I actually wrote this several years ago but am now working on revising it and decided to post it here. Thanks for reading my stuff!**

**I originally titled this fanfic, Face Down as in the song by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, but since that title is highly overused, I changed it to a Ray LaMontagne song. However, even though I changed the title, I left pieces of the Face Down song throughout the story. As the song progresses, so does this fanfic. Look for the different parts of the song at the beginning of certain chapters to signal what is to come.**

**I do not own anything having to do with the song included in this chapter.**

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_Hey, girl, you know you drive me crazy  
one look puts the rhythm in my [head].  
Still I'll never understand why you hang around  
I see what's going down._

_Cover up with makeup in the mirror_  
_tell yourself, it's never gonna happen again_  
_You cry alone and then he swears he loves you._

This takes place towards the end of the 5th season when Emma and _Peter_'s relationship was just starting to take off. The news of them dating was finally out in the open and Emma was successfully recovering from her eating disorder. _Everything_ leading up to this point remains the same and one additional thing happened; Jay was let back into Degrassi with Spinner at the start of the school year, much to Emma's great disapproval. Jay, however, still finds Emma very attractive and has been trying, with very little luck, to get back into her good graces. Currently, even though Emma and Peter seemed like the perfect couple, the truth was that the relationship which started out rockier than most, had never completely smoothed out.

One day at school, in between classes, Emma and Manny were talking at their lockers when Peter came up to them.

"Hello ladies."

Emma smiled and kissed her boyfriend. "Hi!"

Manny huffed and rolled her eyes. "I'll just see you in class, okay Em?"

"Yeah, okay." Emma nodded.

Manny walked off and Emma turned her attention back to Peter. She put her arms around Peter's neck and leaned back against her locker. "Sorry about Manny. I guess she's still a bit upset about what happened between you two."

Peter stiffened, annoyed. "Why do you stay friends with her when she is clearly not in support of us being together?"

Emma's smile faded. "Peter? I really like you, but Manny and I have been friends for, like, ever. You can't expect us to stop now just because you two don't get along. She just needs some time to get to know you like I do." Her smile came back and she ran her fingers through Peter's hair.

Peter moved his head away from Emma's hand, still annoyed. "It doesn't bother you at all that your so-called best friend doesn't trust your taste in boyfriends?"

"It would be nice to have her support, but…" She stood up straight and let go of Peter all together. "Can you really blame her?"

Peter cocked an eyebrow. "Wait, whose side are you on?"

"I'm not on anyone's side, here. I care about both of you equally," Emma defended.

"Yeah, well, you coulda fooled me!"

"Peter?! I just-"

"Whatever, Emma! I'll just see you later!" Peter angrily slammed Emma against her locker, hurting her shoulder in the process, before leaving without another word.

Emma thought to herself as she walked to class, rubbing her shoulder. '_Why do I always do this? I know he angers easily. I just need to stop provoking him._'

Emma continued on to class, all the while blaming herself for what just happened with Peter.

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**I hope this has sufficiently intrigued you for now. More is coming very soon! Thanks for reading, and I love love love reviews!**


	2. Chapter 2

Emma walked into class and sat next to Manny, all the while, still favoring her shoulder.

"Are you okay, Em?" Manny asked as her friend settled into the seat beside her.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Manny furrowed her brow, worried. "What's wrong with your shoulder?"

Emma instantly stopped rubbing her shoulder. "Nothing, I…I must've just slept on it wrong or something. It's okay, really." Silently, she tried to convince herself of that as well.

Manny shrugged off her concern. "Oh, okay…So, did you and Peter enjoy your moment alone?"

"Uh…yeah!" Emma faked as much enthusiasm as she could muster. "…But, he thinks you hate him."

Manny snickered. "That's because I do, but I _love_ you, Em."

"Then could you try to be a little nicer to him? He has no one, here. And, he was there for me during a really hard time, ya know?"

Manny's face turned serious. "Yeah, I know. I guess it can't hurt to try."

"Thanks, Manny." Emma smiled. "It really means a lot to me."

Manny smiled back. "Anything for my best friend."

….

…After school, Peter waited out in front of the school for Emma. She cautiously approached him, unaware of which side of him she would see now.

"Hey, pretty girl!" Peter grinned widely as he pulled out a long stem, red rose from behind his back and handed it to her.

Emma dropped her guard and took the rose from Peter's hand. "Aww, that's so sweet! Thanks Peter!"

"Listen, Emma, I'm sorry about losing control earlier."

Emma put the rose to her nose, sniffed it, and smiled. "It's okay. I understand. Besides, I talked to Manny, and she promised to make an effort to be nicer to you."

"Thanks, but you didn't have to do that, I had no right to come between you two, in the first place."

"It's fine," Emma insisted. "She_ should_ treat you better."

"Well, okay then. Can I walk you home?"

Emma nodded and smiled. "I'd love that."

Peter put his arm around Emma's shoulders. Emma sniffed her rose again and then laid her head on Peter's shoulder. They walked to Emma's house in blissful silence, with Emma completely oblivious to the fact that Peter had, once again, just cast his manipulative spell on her and that it would not be the last time he would need to do so.

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**I am so glad people are actually reading this! Thanks for the reviews so far! The next chapter is coming very soon!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Happy New Year and thanks for reading and reviewing!**

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The next week, even though the weather was unusually warm, Emma came to school in jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. Over the weekend, she had gotten into another argument with Peter. This time it was about what he was wearing…no, wait, it was about what she was wearing…or maybe it was about what movie they were going to see. Emma really could not remember. What she _did_ remember was the way Peter had grabbed her left arm so tightly that it had left a bruise behind, when all she had tried to do was walk away calmly before the situation became any worse. Obviously, that did not work. Peter instantly apologized and Emma foolishly trusted that it would not happen again. But, now, she was wearing the sweatshirt to cover up the bruise. She, as usual, blamed herself for what happened and did not want to raise any suspicions about Peter, for what she believed was an accident. She was just trying to protect him because he laid the charm on so thick that Emma was truly convinced that what Peter was doing to her was justifiable…

…So, Emma was walking down the hall, hoping that she would go unnoticed behind the seemingly tough exterior that she had patched together with what seemed like glue sticks and scotch tape, when someone accidentally bumped into her.

"Watch where you're going!" Emma spat.

"Aww," came a severely sarcastic voice, "did little Greenpeace wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?"

"Just leave me alone, Jay!"

"Dang!" Jay took a step back, defensively. "I'm sorry, okay? It was an accident."

"Whatever!" Emma hissed as she proceeded to walk away.

But, Jay had something else to say. "Hey, wait!"

Jay gently grabbed Emma's left arm to try to pull her back for a moment. She yelped loudly and pulled her arm back quickly.

Now, Jay knew that Emma had a flair for the dramatic, but this still took him by surprise. "Jeez, I barely touched you." He, then, noticed that she was in real pain. "Let me see."

"No," Emma protested, "I'm fine!"

They struggled against each other for a few seconds, but, in the end, Jay succeeded in pushing Emma's sleeve up.

Jay, referring to the large bruise on Emma's arm, asked, "How did you get that?"

Emma pulled her arm back again. "I just bumped it on the arm of a chair in the library, yesterday. No one hurt me, if that's what you were thinking," she lied, weakly.

"I wasn't. But, now that you mention it, it does look like a hand print."

"Well, it's not, so back off!" She yanked her sleeve back down.

Again, Jay was taken aback by her fiercely acidic tone. "Fine!" He threw his hands up in the air, completely forgetting about why he wanted to talk to her in the first place. "I don't even know why I'm still here anyway. It's not like I care _what_ happened to you!

Although she hadn't felt it right then, Jay had just shattered her already fragile being. "Well,…good! Then why did you even ask?!"

Jay paused for a moment, not sure if he even knew the answer to that question. "…Instinct, I guess."

"Do me a favor and spare me the next time then, okay?!" Emma stomped off in a huff of frustration.

Jay thought to himself as he walked on to his next class. '_I'm so stupid! Why can't I just tell her how I feel? Every time I see her, I always mess it up! Ugh, why did I say, I didn't care?!...I wonder if she's really okay._'


	4. Chapter 4

The very next day, Jay decided to try to talk to Emma again. He found her walking down a mostly empty hall, to her first class and spoke cautiously. "Uh, Emma?..."

She turned around and spoke impatiently. "Make it quick."

Jay hung his head and said two extremely loaded words. "…I'm sorry."

"Could you be a little more specific?"

"That's just it," Jay continued, "I'm sorry for everything I put you through. I'm sorry for last year and for arguing with you yesterday, too."

"Why are you saying all of this? I thought you said you," she proceeded to mock his tone from the day before, "didn't care _what_ happens to me."

"I lied."

Emma worked hard to conceal her slight happiness. "Then how do I know you're not lying now?"

Jay knew that Emma had a valid point, and that there was very little he could do to back himself up here. So, rather than string some more seemingly meaningless words together, he chose to say nothing.

"That's what I thought." Emma tapped her foot on the floor impatiently. "So, are we done here?"

Jay found his voice again just as Emma was about to walk away. "No, wait!"

Emma sighed loudly. "What now?"

"The real reason I stopped you," Jay took a deep breath, "was to ask if you could…I mean…would you…tutor me?"

"You want _me_ to tutor _you_?"

Jay nodded. "Would you?"

"Yeah right, what's the catch?"

"No, I'm serious. I need a tutor. I do _not_ want to spend the rest of my life in this place."

Emma exhaled loudly again. "Why me?"

"Because you're you. You're really smart and when you set your mind to something, you always go all the way with it. I need someone who is going to be tough and not give up on me. You're perfect," Emma raised an eyebrow at this and Jay quickly covered, "..for being my tutor, I mean. So…will you do it?"

"Oh, I don't know, Jay." She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I'm still super upset with you for last year."

"Yeah, I know." He looked down in shame.

Emma suddenly reconsidered after seeing Jay's disappointment and how much he must have had to humble himself, to ask for help in the first place. "…But, you weren't the only one to blame for what happened. I did go to you."

Although Jay believed that what happened at the ravine was completely his fault, he decided not to argue.

Emma rolled her eyes dramatically. "Okay, I'll tutor you. But, that's it. No funny business, understood?"

Jay nodded once, trying not to seem overly excited. "Understood."

"Okay, good." Emma was all business. "So, meet me in the MI lab after school today and we will get started."

"Thanks Gre-"

Emma gave him the evil eye.

"…Emma," he self-corrected. "Thank you, Emma."

She shrugged her shoulders as if she could not care less about his gratitude. "Just don't be late."

The bell rang and Emma rushed off to class, leaving Jay dazed by her strength and ability to take complete control whenever he was around her. Little did he know, Peter was the only person who could break past that, tear her down, and then build her back up all within just a few minutes and without Emma ever realizing what he was doing.

Jay walked to his class, his usual five minutes late, very satisfied with himself and he found that he could not stop thinking about Emma. As the day went on, he became more and more impatient for the end of the school day.


	5. Chapter 5

Before long, the last bell rang and it was officially the end of the school day. Emma was walking to the MI lab when Peter caught up to her.

"Hey, Emma, wait up!"

Emma, seemingly rushed and definitely preoccupied, stopped with a shudder and mumbled a greeting in the direction of her boyfriend.

Peter continued, unobservant of any distracted behavior Emma may have been displaying. "So, do you want to go hang out at the Dot?"

Emma looked down at her watch. "I can't."

With those two little words, Peter's agitation once again began to boil. "What? Why not?!"

Emma bit the corner of her lower lip. "I told someone, I would tutor them after school today and I'm going to be late so…" She trailed off, hoping to avoid a blow-up.

"Well, what about after that?" Peter pushed.

"I don't know if I can. I mean, I just don't know how long we are going to be here and then I have a lot of homework of my own to do tonight."

Peter's agitation suddenly bubbled to the surface. "Fine! I mean, why should you make time for me anyway? I'm only your _boyfriend_!"

That was it. Peter had succeeded in making Emma feel like the guilty one, once again. "I'm sorry. We can hang out tomorrow, okay?"

"Whatever." Peter rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders.

Emma tried to kiss Peter before he left, but he moved his head and her lips landed on his cheek instead. She could tell that he was mad at her and it made her feel terrible. Peter walked away and angrily swung the entrance door open and slammed it shut behind him. Emma was glad that door was not her for once, though. She stood there watching him leave and feeling like a horrible person until she remembered that Jay was waiting for her. She briskly walked to the MI lab.

Emma released an out of breath, "Hey!" as she crossed through the doorway of the room.

Jay smirked at her. "And, you told _me_ not to be late. Tisk, tisk, blondie."

"I know." Emma sighed with deep remorse. "I'm sorry. I got into a…" She cut herself off, not wanting to delve into the details. "I got distracted for a minute."

Jay shrugged. "It's cool. You don't have to apologize. I was only kidding. Besides, _you're_ the one doing _me_ the huge favor here."

Emma was caught a bit off guard by his generous acceptance of her lame excuse. "Uh…right. Okay, then…let's just get started."

They worked for about an hour on interpreting Romeo and Juliet and then they moved on to Geometry…

Emma reached across her books and the small table they were sitting at to point to something in Jay's math book. "No, look, if you bisect the angle, then that makes the two new angles congruent to each other. Get it?"

"Not even a little bit."

Emma broke it down for him even more and they kept at it for another hour or so…

…

"I think that's enough for today," Emma finally announced. "I have to get home."

Jay nodded in agreement. "Okay, do you want a ride?"

"No thanks, I'll be fine."

Emma closed her books and in the process, accidentally knocked her pencil off of the table. They both reached for it and their fingers grazed each other. Their eyes met for a split second. Emma smiled and Jay smiled back. Then, Emma broke the gaze and jumped up from the table. She giggled nervously and then picked up her books as she darted her eyes around the room.

Jay's head still felt a little hazy, nevertheless, he tried to string coherent words together again. "Uh, so, can you help me again tomorrow after school?"

"Tomorrow?" She almost agreed to it before remembering Peter. "No, I can't tomorrow, but I can on Thursday. How about we just meet every Tuesday and Thursday after school for a little while?"

Jay's eyes brightened. "Yeah, that would be great. Thanks for doing this, Em…ma, Emma, I mean, thanks for doing this, Emma."

"Yeah, sure. I like it. It's fun. So, I'll see you on Thursday, okay?"

"Okay. And, hey, try not to be late this time, alright?" Jay teased.

They both laughed.

"I'll do my best," she playfully agreed. And, just as Emma had almost made it to the hallway, she added, "Oh, and, you can call me 'Em'…If you want."

Emma, then, walked away leaving Jay stunned, yet again.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day, Wednesday, Emma and Manny were talking in homeroom.

"Did I see you with Jay Hogart, yesterday, after school?"

"Yes Manny, you did," Emma answered nonchalantly.

Manny's eyes widened. "Emma?! What were you doing with him?"

Emma shrugged. "He asked me to tutor him."

"Oh, is that what they're calling it these days?"

"Manny, no! I'm serious. I'm just helping him so he can graduate next year with the rest of us."

"Why do you care if he graduates? And, it sure didn't look like all you were doing was studying. You two were laughing and carrying-on like he didn't give you a disease last year and like you didn't hate him for it."

Emma shook her head. "I don't hate him…not anymore."

"What?" Manny was flabbergasted. "Why not? He's…he's a-"

Emma jumped in to finish Manny's sentence for her. "Guy who's made a few mistakes? Who hasn't?"

Manny flinched. "I…I can't believe you're defending him."

"What happened last year is not entirely his fault, Manny."

"What are you saying? Of course it is! He didn't have to pull you into that. He knew what he was doing. He knows what kind of person you are. Can't you see that he's just using you again?"

"I didn't have to go to the ravine, either. I could've stayed home, but I didn't." Emma was a pro at justifying the pain others inflicted on her, by this point.

"But-"

"Manny, please don't make a big deal out of this. I'm just helping him pass. No one should have to endure this place for longer than absolutely necessary."

Manny let out a huge, dramatic sigh. "Fine. I just worry about you sometimes. Getting involved with a guy like Jay could send you over the edge again. You're destined for heartbreak with that one."

"I'm not '_involved'_ with Jay," Emma adamantly protested. "I have Peter…And, I'm not going to ever let myself lose control like that again."

"Oh, riiiiight, Peter." Manny's sarcasm trickled out. "Does he know about your extracurricular activities?"

"I told him I was tutoring someone but I didn't tell him who, yet."

"Why not?" Manny pried.

Emma shrugged. "It just didn't come up."

Manny rolled her eyes at her best friend. "Uh-huh, I'm sure."

…

…After school, Emma and Manny were at their lockers when Peter came by.

"Hey, Emma, do you want to take a walk to the park with me?" he asked.

Emma smiled and nodded. "Yeah, sure. Uh, bye Manny, talk to you later."

Manny smirked and waved goodbye to her friend.

…

…Later, at the park, Peter had a surprise for Emma. "I have something for you."

Emma's eyes lit up. "Really?"

Peter pulled out a long, thin jewelry box from his back pocket and handed it to her. Emma opened the box to find a beautiful silver bracelet with a silver outline of a heart charm on it.

"Aww, Peter, it's beautiful!"

"Here, let me help you put it on." Peter clasped the bracelet onto Emma's left wrist, like he was claiming property.

"Wow, thank you!" Emma gave Peter a huge smile as she watched the bracelet sparkle in the sunlight. Instinctively, she kissed him to show how thankful she really was.

As their lips parted, Peter softly said, "I love you, Emma."

Shocked, Emma took a step back. "You what?"

"I love you," Peter repeated.

Emma didn't really know if what she felt for Peter was love, but she didn't _not_ love him, either, so… "I love you, too." She smiled to solidify the sentiment behind her words.

Peter and Emma shared another sweet kiss. Then, Peter walked Emma home with her hand in his as she affectionately rested her head on his shoulder.


	7. Chapter 7

Thursday, Emma and Peter were making out in the hall between two classes.

Peter broke for air, first. "So…," he pulled Emma's arm off his shoulder, started to fiddle with her new bracelet, and smiled, "what are we doing after school today?"

Emma bit down on her lower lip. "Uh, I promised I would do some tutoring again, today."

Peter was still looking down at Emma's bracelet. "Who is this person who is getting so much of_ my_ girlfriend's attention lately?"

Emma tried to make it sound as innocent as possible. "Oh, no one really, just Jay."

Peter popped his head up and looked straight into Emma's eyes with a piercing glare. "As in Jay Hogart?"

Becoming a bit scared of her boyfriend's sudden mood change, Emma answered cautiously. "Ye-ah."

"Emma, why would you help him?! He's a pathetic loser who completely used you last year!" Peter's mood had now changed to full-on rage.

"Everyone deserves a second chance, Peter," Emma tried to reason.

"Not him! Unless…Is there something going on between you two?!" He tightly gripped both of Emma's arms and jerked her toward him. "Emma, are you cheating on me?!"

Frightened and struggling to get free, Emma quickly denied this. "No! There's nothing going on! I'm just helping him pass his classes!" She desperately looked around, hoping to catch someone's eyes, but no one passing in the hall seemed to being paying any attention to her and Peter.

Peter jerked her violently again, forcing her to look him in the eyes. "You swear?!"

The more Emma struggled, the tighter Peter's grip became. "Yes! Yes, I swear!"

"Okay, fine." And, just like that, Peter released Emma with a push, sending her back against the wall. "I'll pick you up after the session, alright?"

Emma nodded quickly, still afraid. "Yeah, okay."

Noticing the fear in his girlfriend's eyes, Peter softened his own eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I just couldn't take it if Jay were to take advantage of you like that again. I just love you so much. I don't want to lose you."

Emma calmed down as forgiveness instantly took over. "That's never gonna happen. It's okay. I love you, too." She gave him a quick kiss and headed off to class.

But, things were not okay, and Emma would soon find out, that was not the worst of Peter's rage.

…

After school, Emma walked into the MI lab a few minutes early only to find Jay already there and waiting for her. As they went through the session, Emma seemed somewhat distracted at times. Jay tried his best to keep her smiling and having a good time as they studied and it worked temporarily, that is, until…

Peter knocked on the doorway to get their attention. "Ready to go?"

Emma looked at the clock, then to Jay, and then back to Peter. "Yeah, sure." She hopped up from the table and reached her hand out for Peter's.

Then, Jay saw it. Emma's brand new bracelet that just screamed 'happily in love' had escaped from underneath her sleeve and was now taunting Jay. Peter pulled Emma into a kiss right in front of him, as if to say, '_she's mine_.' Emma giggled from the giddy feeling she had after the kiss.

Emma turned her attention back to the other guy in the room just for a second. "So, I'll see you on Tuesday, right Jay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, Tuesday. Yeah, sure," Jay replied as he slowly came back to reality.

Emma smiled in recognition of Jay's confirmation. "Okay, good." Peter whispered something in her ear and she giggled again as she turned and walked out with him.

Jay's false smile melted to the ground as soon as they were out of sight.


	8. Chapter 8

Tuesday, after school, Emma was already in the MI lab and this time she was waiting on Jay to get there. Jay was deliberately trying to be late because he was just not looking forward to seeing Emma again, now that he knew, for sure, that she was very happily involved with another guy. But, what he was not aware of was that Emma was finding it particularly difficult to balance school, Peter, and her family today and was in no mood to accommodate Jay's wounded ego.

Emma's harsh tone greeted Jay when he finally did walk in. "You're late."

Jay had no problem giving the harshness right back. "Oh, I'm surprised you noticed. I figured you'd be too busy being all over your _boyfriend _to care about the little people today."

"What is your problem?! Look, if you are not going to be fully committed to this then I'm not gonna bother wasting my time anymore!"

Jay was shocked by her huge leap. He expected there to be a little more back and forth before she took it _that_ far. "Whoa, whoa. I'm sorry, okay? …Wait, is that all I am to you? A waste of time?"

Emma sighed. "No, I'm just…" She shook off her anger. "It doesn't even matter, let's just get started."

Jay was visibly relieved. "Okay, fine, but I really am sorry and I really do need your help."

"Whatever, it's fine."

But, things were clearly not fine, and Jay was not ready to let this go. "Wait. Are you okay? I mean, really, okay?"

"Why? It's not like you're really interested," Emma snipped.

"Sure I am." Jay spoke with genuine sincerity.

Emma was surprised to hear him say that and lowered her guard a few notches. "Well, it's just that," she quickly remembered who she was talking to and questioned if she really wanted to open up to him, "…never mind, it's nothing. We should just work on your assignments."

"No, come on. I need my tutor to be completely focused and right now, you seem like you're somewhere else, so just tell me what's on your mind so we can get on with this."

Emma sighed again, more deeply this time and finally let go. "Fine…I just feel like there's all this pressure to be this perfect student, girlfriend, and daughter and sometimes I just…I just can't handle it all!" She found it surprisingly easy to pour out all her problems to Jay. "Like this morning, I failed a test because my little brother kept the whole house up all night, last night, and then I accidentally took it out on Peter, so now he's upset with me. And, my parents wonder why I never tell them anything anymore, but it's just because I'm afraid of disappointing them. Sometimes, I wish I could just go somewhere else where no one has any predetermined expectations of me…" All of the sudden, she looked down, embarrassed. "Wow, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to lay all of that on you."

Jay was not at all sorry that he had asked her to open up. "It's okay. Sometimes I just want to fly under the radar, too."

Emma looked into Jay's eyes. "Really? I thought you took pride in your bad boy reputation."

Jay chuckled. "Oh, don't get me wrong, I do work hard to project a certain image, but I'm not always proud of how others see me. I mean, everyone here has one of two opinions of me. I'm either a guy who knows how to party hard or the incredible jerk who uses anyone he can to his own convenience and never thinks twice. And, right now, I'm not proud of either one of those people."

"But, that's not entirely true," Emma revealed. "I don't see you as either one of those two."

"Oh, no? Then who _do_ you see me as?"

"I see you as just a guy who has made a few bad decisions in life but really deserves to have someone take a chance on him."

Jay was speechless. He had no idea that Emma felt that way.

Emma's confidence grew more with every moment she sat there confiding in Jay. It helped to know that there was someone else who did not feel as composed as they led the world to believe they were. She bravely asked, "And who do you see me as?"

Jay squinted his eyes and pretended to concentrate intently. "I see a girl who's scared to be less than what people build her up to be but who has every right to want to loosen up every once and while."

It was Emma's turn to be taken aback. "Wow."

"Yeah, wow."

They paused on each other for a moment and then Emma looked at the clock on the wall. "…Oh, we should really try to get some work done now."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Jay reluctantly agreed.

They worked for about an hour and a half and noticed that they were, now, even more comfortable with each other than before. Jay had a renewed faith that maybe at least one person still cared about what kind of a person he _could_ be. And Emma? Well, she had someone new to listen to her who did not have any preconceived notions about how she _should_ act around him.


	9. Chapter 9

A few weeks had passed and Emma and Jay's friendship had grown much stronger. Both were enjoying the other's company and they were finding it increasingly easy to confide in each other. Before Emma knew it, she was trusting Jay, the guy she _thought_ was impossible to ever trust again, with things she would never tell anyone else and Jay was doing the same. Of course, Manny was still her best friend and they still talked, but there were still some things that she felt Manny just would not understand. Jay did not know much about Emma and her past, which made him the perfect person to talk to when she was feeling uncharacteristic. Emma found that Jay was incredibly nonjudgmental and an amazing listener. In turn, she always had endless patience for him when she was tutoring him. They had even started hanging out outside of their Tuesday-Thursday sessions and because they had been spending so much time together lately, Emma had been around Peter less. This had been a good thing for Emma because the times when she did see Peter, he was grateful for, and she was beginning to see the gentler side of him that had made her fall for him in the first place. Everything seemed to be going smoothly in Emma's life, for once, until one bad night that would completely change Emma's world as she knew it and would set something new into motion, whether she wanted it to or not.

…

...One Thursday evening, Peter picked Emma up after her session with Jay and they headed back to her house. Manny had gone on an overnight Spirit Squad trip and Emma's parents had gone on their annual weekend trip with some of their old high school friends. They trusted Emma to be on her own for a few days and left Emma's younger brother, Jack, with a friend that Spike works with.

Peter and Emma walked into her house.

"So…we have the whole house to ourselves." Emma looked at Peter seductively. "What do you want to do?"

Peter grabbed Emma's waist and pulled her close to him. "Well, how about we do this?" He kissed her passionately.

"Works for me." She kissed him back.

With their lips still all over each other, they clumsily tried to make their way to the couch. Then, Emma spotted the flashing light on the answering machine by the stairs.

"Wait, there's a message." She pushed on Peter, lightly.

"Leave it," Peter insisted. "You can check it later." He lunged at Emma's lips again.

Emma dodged him and held his shoulders back. "But, it might be my parents. It'll just take a second."

Peter sighed and let her go. "Fine."

Emma pushed the button on the answering machine and they heard an automated voice say: "You have one message, sent today at 5:38 pm," (that was just a few minutes before Emma had gotten home with Peter) "message one:"

Then, they heard, "Hey Em, it's Jay. You left your math book with me. I'll stop by your locker tomorrow morning, so you can get it back. Okay, I'll talk to you later. Take care. Bye."

The automated voice continued again with instructions for dealing with the message and Emma pressed the button to erase it. Then, she turned around to face Peter, smiling, but he was not smiling back.

"What was that?" Peter demanded.

"Nothing. I just left my math book at school." Emma put her arms back around Peter. "Now…where were we?" She leaned in to kiss him.

Peter roughly pushed his way out of her embrace. "He calls you _Em_?"

Emma shrugged, thinking it was no big deal. "Yeah, so?"

"_I_don't even call you that," Peter whined.

"You could if you wanted to." Emma was trying to keep Peter's temper from spiking. "It's just a nickname."

"Who are you kidding? He has a thing for you."

"We're just friends."

"You expect me to believe that?" It was becoming more certain that Peter's anger would be making a repeat performance that night. "I've seen the two of you, and you barely have any time for me anymore. I can't believe you're doing this to me!"

He was jumping to all of the wrong conclusions, and all Emma wanted was for him to calm down. "Doing what? I told you, we're-"

"Just friends, yeah, I know. You wanna try telling me the truth this time?"

Emma tried to laugh it off. "What is wrong with you? You're not making any sense. I do _not_like Jay."

"Damn it, Emma, don't lie to me!" Peter lost complete control of his emotions and in a blind rage, slapped Emma's left cheek.

Emma put her hand to her cheek and gave Peter a look of shock and fear.

Peter's eyes widened. "Oh, Emma, I-"

With her other hand, Emma pointed to the door. "Get out!"

"Emma, please! I didn't-"

Emma held her ground. "I said, get out!"

"No, please!" Peter continued to plead. "I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to hurt you. It was an accident! It's just…Hogart. He really gets to me. You have to forgive me. Please, it'll never happen again. I love you, Emma. Please, don't give up on me…on us."

Emma truly believed that Peter did love her and she did not want to lose that, so, once again, she let him manipulate her. "Fine, but promise me something first."

"Anything, I'll do anything!"

"You have to stop being jealous of Jay, okay? I love _you_, not him."

"Okay, I promise," Peter put his hands up in front of him, "I'll back off. And, I really am sorry about…you know."

Emma rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Whatever, I'm fine. Let's just watch a movie or something."

"Yeah, okay." Peter walked over to the Nelson-Simpson DVD collection to pick out a movie.

Emma touched her cheek again and then stifled back a few tears before Peter joined her on the couch.


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you to everyone who is reading this and a special thank you to those who are reviewing as well. You have no idea how happy it makes me! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything having to do with the lyrics/song included in this chapter.**

* * *

_Cover up with make up in the mirror  
Tell yourself it's never gonna happen again  
You cry alone and then he swears he loves you_

_Do you feel like a man_  
_When you push her around?_  
_Do you feel better now, as she falls to the ground?_  
_Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end_  
_As your lies crumble down, a new life she has found_

_A pebble in the water makes a ripple effect_  
_Every action in this world will bear a consequence_  
_If you wade around forever you will surely drown_  
_I see what's going down_

_I see the way you go and say you're right again,_  
_Say you're right again,_  
_Heed my lecture_

The next morning, Friday, Emma got her books from her locker and looked at herself in the mirror she had on the inside of her locker door. She noticed that the bruise on her cheek was beginning to show through the makeup she had used to hide it. She took out the concealer from her purse and began to reapply it as Jay came up behind her.

"Hey, Em! I have your math-" He automatically knew what she was doing. "You know, I've heard the trick to covering up a fresh bruise is to not let things get that far in the first place."

Emma stopped applying her makeup for a split second and stared at Jay through her mirror, then she went back to hiding Peter's secret. "I don't know what you're talking about. The top drawer on my dresser was jammed this morning and when I tried to fix it, it hit me in the eye."

"Wow, either you're the clumsiest person I have ever met or you are not telling me what is really going on here."

Emma finished covering up and shut her locker. With her back still to Jay, she tried to come up with more lies. "Jay, I…I just…" She sighed.

Emma did not know what to say or do next. He was, after all, right. Jay turned her around to face him.

With his hands on Emma's upper arms, Jay tried to catch her gaze as she looked down. "Right now, I'm thinking it's the second one…It's Peter isn't it?"

Emma looked up at him. "How did you- I mean, what makes you say that?" She shrugged Jay's hands off of her.

Jay's eyes turned sympathetic. "I see the way he is with you. He's forceful and possessive. He treats you like his property, not his girlfriend.

"He loves me," Emma defended.

"Come on, how could he possibly love you and then turn around and hit you like that?"

Emma wagged her index finger from side to side. "I never said that Peter hit me."

"Emma?" Jay titled his head to one side and raised an eyebrow. "I'm not as dumb as everyone thinks I am."

"I know that, but I never-"

"You didn't have to say it. I could see it in your eyes as soon as I mentioned his name. You're afraid of him, aren't you?"

Emma scoffed. "That's ridiculous. We are _not _ having this conversation."

Jay looked around and then pulled Emma into an empty classroom, with him.

"Jay, what are you-"

"It's just you and me now, so, yes, we _are _ having this conversation."

"We're gonna be late for class," Emma whined.

"Forget class. Emma, talk to me. I thought we had a good rhythm going here. I thought we trusted each other."

Emma looked down, ashamed of herself. "We do…I do, I do trust you."

"Then why can't you tell me the whole story?"

"Because, there's nothing left to tell. You already know everything." Emma sighed. "Yes. Okay? It was Peter. But, he said it will never happen again and I believe him. End of story. Can I have my math book, now?"

Jay was not letting her off the hook that easily. "But, Em, this isn't even the first time it's happened. That bruise on your arm; that was him too, wasn't it?"

"Yes, but-"

Jay cut her off, not wanting to hear any more excuses. "And who knows how many other countless times he's hurt you and just not left a visible mark!"

"Please, Jay, just leave it alone. Everything is fine, now."

They were talking in circles, and Jay did not want to turn Emma away by pushing things too hard, so he decided to _temporarily_ back off. "Okay, fine. I'm gonna let this go for now, but if he hurts you again, I'll kill him. You can count on that."

"I would expect nothing less," she grinned while admiring Jay's protective side, "but I'm telling you, it won't be necessary."

Jay sighed this time. "I hope you're right…Oh, here." He finally handed over Emma's math book.

"Thanks." For her, that meant much more than just, '_Thank you for returning my book_.'

But, Jay, did not notice the deeper meaning. "Yeah, no problem."

Emma rushed off to class and Jay leisurely walked to his, still unsure if he should have let things go that simply.


	11. Chapter 11

That same day after school, Jay still could not take his mind off of Emma. He decided he had no other choice but to go to Emma's best friend for help. Jay found Manny leaving school for the day by herself. As she rounded the empty corner just past the schoolyard, he called out to her.

"Hey Slu- I mean, Manny! Can I talk to you?"

Manny did not even bother to stop while giving him her response. "I'd rather you not."

Jay tried to keep in stride with her. "Please, it's about Emma."

Manny stayed her course while growing increasingly annoyed. "What did you do to her this time?"

"I didn't do anything," Jay defended. "It's Peter."

Manny finally stopped to hear what had to say. "What about him?"

"I'm worried that he's abusing her."

Manny scoffed as she assumed this was just one of Jay's latest schemes and that he was just wasting her time. "Where did you get an idea like that?"

Jay began quietly. "She basically told me so…" With more conviction, he continued. "And, the evidence has been all over her for months! I can't believe I didn't figure it out sooner! Have you seen her face today?"

Manny furrowed her brow. "She told me that was because of her-"

"Dresser? Yeah, I know. And, the baggie clothes she's been wearing are what? The latest fashion statement?"

Manny finally realized just how lame all of that sounded. "I'll kill him." She darted back toward the school.

Jay grabbed her. "Whoa, easy there, Rocky. As much as I would_ love_ to help you with that, we can't go after him, not yet."

Manny threw Jay's arms off of her. "Why not?!"

"Because, Emma asked me not to and she would never forgive me if I went against her like that."

"_You_ don't have to do anything. I can take on Peter all by myself."

"No," Jay insisted again. "She has to want to leave him, for herself. It will be better for her in the end if she's the one who ends the relationship. Just hold off for a little bit, okay?"

"Why did you even tell me this, if you won't let me do anything about it?" Manny put her hands on her hips in frustration.

"Because, there's strength in numbers, right?"

Manny was unsure of where he was going with this. "Ye-ah…"

"Well, right now, Emma thinks that there is no problem, but if we both work on her, maybe she'll realize the truth quicker."

"And, since when do you care so much about Emma?"

Jay became a bit defensive and started to squirm around a little. "It's just…ever since she started tutoring me, we…" He caught himself smiling as he thought of Emma and then pulled himself back together. "We're just friends."

"Riiight, just like Paige and your ex were just friends when they danced at that Kevin Smith movie premiere party?" Manny teased.

Jay cringed at the memory of that night. "That's completely different!"

"No, I don't think it is." Manny smirked. "I think you like her."

"What?" Jay panted. "Come on."

Manny saw right through his weak attempt at avoidance. "Yeah, you do, don't you? You want to be more than just friends with her."

Jay didn't know what to say.

"I don't hear you denying it!" Manny pushed.

"Okay! Yes, I care about her!" Jay finally relented. "Are you happy now?! And, that jerk does not deserve her! I may not be the ideal guy for her, but I would never hurt her like that. I just need you to help me get her away from him!"

Manny laughed in victory. "Okay, okay! I'll talk to her!"

"But, make it seem like you figured it out on your own. I could already feel her pulling away from me when I talked to her this morning. If she knew, I talked to you-"

"Then why _did_ you come to me?"

"I told you, I just figured that if she heard it from you too, she might start to pull herself out of the trance he has her in. Plus, you guys have history. I thought that she might take to your concern better than mine."

"Okay then, don't worry. I'll talk to her…and I won't mention you."

Manny finally made it the rest of the way to Emma's/her place after deciding with Jay that they would both work on Emma some more in the coming days.


	12. Chapter 12

Tuesday after school in the MI lab, Emma walked in to a warm greeting from Jay, who was already sitting down. "Hey, Em!"

Emma smiled. "Hey!"

"How was your weekend? Injury free, I hope."

Emma sat down across from him at the table and breathed out roughly before speaking. "As a matter of fact, yes, it was. So, you can stop asking."

Jay put his hands up. "Okay, I'm just concerned that's all."

Emma retorted in a low tone. "Yeah, you and Manny both."

Jay acted surprised. "Manny?"

"Yeah, it's the strangest thing, she's been playing the concerned friend card all weekend. She has been pushing me to tell her the truth since the moment she came home on Friday."

Jay kept up his act. "Why is that strange? She's your best friend, right? I'm sure she can tell when you're hiding something."

"Well, yeah, usually she can," Emma agreed, "but she hasn't been around me long enough to notice anything lately. Ever since she got back together with Craig," (he never left for Vancouver) "she's either with him or the spirit squad. I just didn't figure she was paying that much attention to _my_ life."

Jay thought to himself, '_She wasn't, that's why __**I**__ had to tell her_.' But, what he actually said was, "You live in the same house, the same room, there's only so much that can go unnoticed."

"But why now? It just seemed like an all of the sudden kind of thing."

Jay became sarcastic. "I don't know, maybe that shiner," he leaned over and touched the side of her face gently, "gave it away." Jay changed the subject from Manny back to Emma. "…Are you sure he hasn't hurt you again?"

Emma moved her head away from his hand and rolled her eyes. "Yes! I'm positive…You know what, let's just get on with this session, okay?"

Jay hung his head as he relented. "Yeah, sure."

"Okay, find the area of this triangular prism." Emma pointed to a problem in the book.

Jay scratched his head. "What's the formula for that again?"

Emma shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest as she leaned back in her chair. "Nah-ah-ah, I'm not telling you that. Look it up."

"Aw, come on. Do you always have to be so tough?"

"Yep." Emma giggled and then regained her strict mode. "Just do it."

Jay smiled, glad to see Emma in good spirits again. "Fine." He worked the problem and got it right.

"See, I knew you could do it!" Emma put her hand on Jay's arm encouragingly.

Jay looked straight into Emma's eyes and smiled. The intensity of his eyes made her blush and look down.

Emma took her hand off of Jay's arm. "Um, okay, try this one." She pointed to another problem.

"There are laws against child labor, you know?" Jay replied under his breath.

Emma smirked. "How would _you_ know? We haven't covered that chapter yet."

"Oh, ouch, I know things!" Jay put his hand to his heart. "You wound me."

"I'm sure," Emma sarcastically answered back. "And, besides, you are hardly a child."

Jay cocked his eyebrow at her. Emma was always the first to call him out on his bouts of immaturity in the past, but was she finally seeing him as the more grown-up person he had been striving to become lately?

Emma rolled her eyes at the huge smirk Jay was wearing and insisted, yet again, that they get back to his assignments. They continued to work for about another hour.


	13. Chapter 13

_Do you feel like a man  
When you push her around?  
Do you feel better now, as she falls to the ground?  
Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end  
As your lies crumble down, a new life she has found_

_Face down in the dirt!  
She said "this doesn't hurt!"  
She said "I've finally had enough!"_

As Jay and Emma were finishing their session, they were caught laughing about something by Peter, who had just come by to pick Emma up.

Peter was clearly not happy. "You ready?"

Emma instantly stopped laughing at the sound of his emotionless voice and smiled innocently at him. "Yeah, sure." She smiled back at Jay and then gathered her things.

Just before Emma left the room with Peter, Jay called out, "Hey Em, be careful, alright?"

Emma turned around and gave Jay an, 'I _can't believe you just said that in front of Peter_' mixed with a, '_Don't start this again_,' look. "Okay," she said through gritted teeth.

Peter noticed the look and the tension coming from Emma. He looked curiously at the two of them, before gripping Emma's waist a bit tighter and taking her out to the hall with him.

Then, Peter abruptly let her go as they kept walking to the main entrance/exit of the school to leave. "What was up with that?"

"What was up with what?" Emma asked naively.

"Don't mess with me, Emma. You told him what happened last week, didn't you?"

Emma stopped in her tracks, but Peter kept walking right out the door.

"No…" She rushed after him. "I didn't!"

As they both walked quickly down the front steps, Peter argued, "Well, he obviously knows." At the bottom of the stairs, he whipped around quickly to face her.

Emma stopped abruptly in front of him. "He's my friend, Peter. He could just tell that I was hiding something from him."

"And what?! You just filled in the gaps for him?!"

Emma slowly answered. "Well…yeah…but-"

Peter started walking away again. "Damn it, Emma! I can't believe you would do this! Now, he probably thinks that I'm some abusive jerk, but you know that's not me! What if he goes to my mom…or the police?!"

Emma chased after him. "No! He won't! I told him…I told him it was an accident and to leave it alone!" She caught up to him and latched onto his arm. "Would you just stop and talk to me?!"

"No, I just can't be around you right now."

While still holding onto him, Emma begged. "Peter, please! Don't leave like this! Talk to me.

"I said, NO!" Peter swung his arm out and flung Emma off of him.

Emma's body hit the ground, hard.

* * *

**Yay, for cliffhangers! More is coming soon! Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

**Oh, p.s.- I do not own anything having to do with the lyrics/song included in this chapter.  
**


	14. Chapter 14

Peter instantly switched emotional gears. "Emma, are you okay? I'm so sorry." He reached his hand out to help her up. "It was just-"

"An accident?!" Emma scooted away from him. "Just like every other time was just an accident?! Well, I'm tired of being the victim of your _accidents_!"

Peter was shocked by what he was hearing. "Emma, this is Jay talking, not you. He's been filling your head with what he wants you to think. You know I didn't mean to hurt you!"

"You never do and yet it keeps happening!"

"But, I love you," Peter insisted.

"I'm done with your lies!" Emma's fall had finally cracked her rose-colored glasses. "How can you say you love me and then treat me this way?!"

"Come on, we can work this out. Just let me help you up." Peter tried to grab for her arm.

"Don't touch me!" Emma pulled away from him again.

Meanwhile, Jay had just left school, as well, when he heard Emma yell and then he saw her on the ground with Peter standing over her. He ran over to them. "Aww, hell no!" He grabbed Peter's shoulders from behind and turned him around to face him.

Peter rolled his eyes, angry that Jay was in the middle of him and Emma once again. "Man, stay out of this! Can't you just mind your own business for once?!"

"Who are you kidding?" Jay scoffed. "Emma _is_my business, has been for months, and that was the last time you will ever hurt her!"

Jay pulled his fingers into a fist and drew his arm back, but before he had the chance to give Peter exactly what he deserved…

Emma shouted, "Jay, no! Please, don't!"

Jay dropped his arm and grabbed Peter by his collar with his other hand. "Why not?! It's not like he doesn't have this coming." He looked past Peter to where Emma was still down on the ground but trying to get up. He pushed Peter away and went over to help Emma.

As she tried to push herself to her feet, she began, "I know, but listen-"

Jay reached out to help her up. "Here, let me help you."

As Jay pulled her up, Emma finished her sentence. "…There's no doubt that Peter deserves whatever you were about to do to him, but it's not worth the risk of you getting in trouble for it." She was finally standing again. "Thanks." She smiled at Jay.

Peter came back up behind Jay, determined to turn this all around. "Let me handle this, man! Just back off!" He tried to touch Emma. "Emma, come on, I love you."

Emma jerked away from Peter as Jay still held onto her.

Jay made sure that Emma had her own balance and then turned and pushed on Peter. Speaking calmly, Jay showed greater control of his anger than Peter ever could. "You need to just take a step back."

"Don't tell me what I need to do!" Peter swung at Jay but missed when Jay ducked out of the way.

"Oh, that's it!" Jay drew his arm back again.

Emma put her hands gently over Jay's fist. "No, please Jay, it won't change anything."

Peter opened his eyes back up when he realized that Jay was not going to hit him and was shocked by what he saw. "Emma, your arm. You're bleeding!"

Jay turned his focus to Emma. He positioned himself directly in front of her, blocking Peter's view of her. As he held Emma's arm in his hands, he asked, "Are you alright?"

Emma looked at her arm. "Yeah, I think it's just a scrape."

Suddenly, pummeling Peter was the last thing on Jay's mind. "Let me take you home," he offered.

Emma was embarrassed and wanted a chance to compose herself before facing her parents and Manny. "No, I can't go home right now."

"Then, I'll take you to my place." Jay was adamant about getting Emma somewhere safe. "You gotta get that arm bandaged up."

Emma nodded her head and shyly said, "Okay."

Jay and Emma completely ignored Peter as they started to walk to Jay's car.

Peter was stunned that the two of them just walked away, he stood in the same spot they left him in, and yelled out to them. "Emma, I'm sorry! Emma! Come on, I love you!"

Emma shook her head and got into Jay's car.

"This isn't over!" Peter shouted as the car sped away.

* * *

**Ok, so I know that was not the fight that a lot of you were hoping for, and I really did consider adding a bit more of a physical interaction here just to please my loyal readers. I kept it like this however, because it felt more in Emma's character to ask Jay not to fight. Also, the next chapter is one of my favorites, and if Jay had done any serious damage to Peter it just would not work. But, like Peter said, this isn't over and it is not the last confrontation between the two guys. Thanks for reading and reviewing! More is coming soon!**


	15. Chapter 15

When they reached Jay's apartment, Jay unlocked the door, and they walked in together.

"Just, uh…," Jay gathered up some fast food wrappers and dirty clothes that were scattered around the living room, "sit…," he snatched up one last pair of underwear and quickly stuffed it into his pocket, "anywhere. I'll be right back."

Emma giggled at the sight of him scrambling around. "Okay, thanks."

Jay ran into another room and Emma took a seat on the couch in the middle of the living room…When Jay came back, Emma was talking to someone on her cell phone.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Mom. I just went out with some friends after my tutoring session with Jay. I'll be home later…Yeah, mmhmm…Okay, I will…Love you, too. Bye, Mom." She put her phone back into her pocket.

"Emma Nelson, lying to the 'rents? What's next? Another trip to the ravine?" Jay teased.

Emma salivated with sarcasm. "You're sooooo funny."

Jay nodded once and looked down. "Sorry, bad joke…I, uh, brought you some stuff for your arm." He sat down next to Emma on the couch.

"Oh, thanks." Emma smiled and her slightly less wary eyes visibly brightened.

Jay opened the disinfectant spray. "This is probably gonna sting."

Emma gave Jay her arm. "Just get it over with, please."

"Okay, here it comes."

Jay sprayed Emma's arm. She winced a little but did not make a peep.

Jay was in complete awe of the girl sitting next to him. "You are one tough girl, you know that?"

"That's not what you said last year," Emma reminded him. "You called me, cold."

"Yeah well, last year, I was an idiot."

"And now?"

"Now, I'm a smarter idiot. Thanks to you."

Emma laughed. "You think so?"

"Yeah, I do."

They were suddenly very close to each other. Their lips just centimeters apart until…they both had second thoughts, breathed in deeply, and jumped back.

Jay broke the awkward silence first. "Uh, maybe I should just finish patching you up."

Emma nodded nervously. "Um, yeah, that's probably a good idea."

Jay nodded in the same way and started to wrap her arm in gauze. "So," he cleared his throat and his nerves, "why didn't you want to go home?"

Emma watched his wrapping very closely. "I'm just not ready to face my parents. When I tell them what has been happening, they're gonna freak out. And then, there's Manny, who will probably launch into some kind of I-told-you-so speech. I just can't handle any of that right now. I could use a few hours of calm in my life."

"Well, okay then. You can stay here for as long as you want." Jay finished bandaging Emma's arm with one last strip of tape.

"Wow, you're really good at that," Emma praised.

"Don't tell anyone, okay? I have a reputation to maintain, you know? I'm supposed to be good at knocking people out, not fixing them up."

Emma smiled. "Your secret's safe with me. Thank you for taking care of me like this."

"No problem, but I really wish you would have let me give that scumbag a good once over." Jay's fists clenched in anger over Peter and then unclenched just as quickly.

"I know, but it's like I said, it was not worth you getting suspended or worse for it."

"I don't care about any of that." What's a little trouble to Jay Hogart? It is not like it was a new concept to him. "It would have been worth it to me to know that I scared him away from doing anything even remotely close to that to you or anyone else ever again."

"I'm not sure that really would have made a difference. Besides, if he had gone crying to his mom, you could've gotten kicked out of school again, and I don't think I can handle that place without you there," Jay looked up at her and smiled at the sound of that, "so just let me deal with it, okay? Just promise me you won't go after him."

"I don't know if I can promise something like that, Em. He can't just get away with this."

"Please, Jay. I need to be the one to handle this. Trust me, he is not going to get away with anything."

Jay sighed and then very reluctantly gave in. "Fine, I promise not to go after him…but if he throws the first punch, it's on."

Emma nodded. "Fair enough…So…got any good movies in this place?"

"Hmmm, it's possible." Jay's eyes scanned his supposed-to-be bookcase that housed all of his electronic entertainment needs and not a single book.

They watched, _Rebel Without A Cause_, while on separate ends of the couch, and then Jay drove Emma home.


	16. Chapter 16

Jay pulled up in front of Emma's house. "Are you sure you're ready for this?"

"No…" Emma answered honestly, "but I can't hide from this forever."

Jay turned very serious. "Hey," Emma's attention had been sufficiently caught and she looked up into his eyes as he continued, "none of this was your fault, okay? None of it. Remember that. And, this is your parents and your _best _friend. They're on your side."

Emma sighed. "Yeah, I know. But, it was just easier with you. I mean, you figured it out on your own. I haven't had to actually tell someone yet. It's just hard to find the words. I still don't even think _I _understand how this all happened." She lost her composure for a few minutes and spiraled into a rant. "How could he do this?! How could anyone treat their girlfriend or boyfriend like that?! Oh, and he was so good at covering it up, too. He had me fooled for months." She mocked Peter's voice, "I love you, Emma." Then, she mocked herself, "You do? Well then, of course I forgive you for bruising me up time after time!…How could I let this happen?! I was so-"

"Emma, stop!" Jay could not stand to hear Emma blame herself anymore. "Peter is a master manipulator, okay? You didn't do anything wrong. No one who falls into a guy like that's clutches is safe, but you got out while you still could. Realizing you're in an abusive relationship is a great first step, but talking about it…that's the only way to truly deal. But, you should really be discussing this with your family. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't mind listening to you at all, you know that, but they can help you through this a lot better than I can."

Emma was amazed at how insightful he was being. "You're just full of surprises today, aren't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, quit stalling already."

"Alright, alright, I'm going." Emma opened the passenger side door.

Jay caught her attention one more time. "Hey, do you want a ride to school tomorrow?"

Emma turned her head back in Jay's direction. "Yeah, sure. That would be great."

Jay smirked, happy that she wasn't tired of him yet. "Okay, I'll be back in the morning then."

Emma got out of the car and then stuck her head back in. "Thanks, Jay…for everything."

"No sweat…now get in there!" he joked.

Emma shut the car door and ran up the steps to her house. She looked back at Jay one last time before entering.

…

Emma yelled out to anyone who was interested. "Hey, I'm home!"

Spike yelled from the kitchen. "Just a second!" Then she hollered down to the girls' room. "Manny, Emma's home!" She came out to the living room, and Manny joined shortly after. "Hi honey, how was your day?"

Emma brought her arms out from behind her back. "Well…"

Spike immediately went into protective mom mode. "Emma, what happened to your arm? Are you, okay?"

Emma glanced back toward the door and smiled. "I will be…" she turned to her mom again and got serious, "but there's something I need to tell you."

Manny gave Emma a knowing but not at all taunting look…Just then, Snake came down from upstairs. He immediately clued in to the seriousness that had taken over the living room.

"What's going on down here?" Snake asked.

Emma began to tell them what Peter had been doing to her, and to her surprise, her parents took the news very calmly. She had expected them to be in an uproar about it all and that they were going to press her for all kinds of details that she was not ready to delve into. However, they were mostly concerned with comforting their daughter but, at the same time, they tried not to be suffocating as they could tell that Emma did not want a lot of doting attention at the moment. She needed space to process the day's events for herself and they respected that.

…

The next morning, Wednesday, Emma was standing in front of Degrassi at the bottom of the steps. A desperate Peter cautiously walked up to her.

Peter tried to play innocent. "Hi, Emma."

Emma would not make eye contact with him. "Shouldn't you be locked up somewhere?"

"Well, seeing as how it is still a few months before I'm even 17, you're about a year and a half too early to see me thrown in jail, but your mom did call mine and I'm pretty much grounded until the day after forever, if that makes you happy. Oh, and she's making me volunteer at the Children and Family Services Center."

"It's a start, I guess." She crossed her arms in front of her and turned away from him.

Peter, making sure not to touch Emma, moved in front of her again. "Please, Emma, can't we work this out?"

Emma rolled her eyes and shook her head. "There's nothing left to work out."

"Come on," Peter pleaded. "I just wanna talk to you and this time big bad Jay's not around to get in the way of us making up." He inched a bit closer to her.

Emma opened her mouth to jump to Jay's defense, but before she had a chance to say anything…

"Guess again, Momma's boy." Jay, who had just dropped Emma off in front of the school because he had to park all the way out in 'Timbuktu' that morning, was now standing directly behind Peter. Emma smiled and regained her confidence as Jay walked around Peter to stand protectively beside her. "Is there a problem, here?"

Emma was much more relaxed now. "No, we were just tying up loose ends." She balanced her bag on her knee as she dug around for something. When she found it, she addressed Peter, stoically. "Here, you can have this back." She pulled out the bracelet Peter had given her just weeks before as a last attempt to save their relationship from his abuse. "We're over, Peter. Don't ever come near me again!" She dropped the bracelet on the ground in front of Peter. As it hit the pavement, the heart charm broke in half. She, then, turned to Jay. "You ready to go inside?"

"You bet." Jay gave Emma his arm like they were going to some fancy event rather than just boring old school.

Peter watched Emma and Jay walk up the stairs and into the building together.


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything having to do with the lyrics/song included in this chapter.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

* * *

_One day she will tell you, __  
__that she has had enough. __  
__He's coming 'round again._

_Do you feel like a man  
When you push her around?  
Do you feel better now, as she falls to the ground?  
Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end  
As your lies crumble down, a new life she has found_

Thursday, sometime in the middle of the day, both Peter and Jay just-so-happened to be late for their next class. They quickly closed their lockers on opposite ends of the hall and started briskly down it. The two were unintentionally headed straight for each other, but once their shoulders brushed, Peter lost it. He whipped around and started yelling.

"You wanna start something? Come on! Let's finish this!" Peter shouted.

Jay angrily turned around but then just as quickly dropped his attitude. "Nah, man. I don't wanna fight. Just walk away."

"What? Are you scared that I might actually be able to take you?" Peter taunted. He gave Jay a light shove.

Jay tilted his head to one side and cocked an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, have you met me? I could knock you all the way into next week with just one finger. Do you really wanna mess with me?"

Peter stood up straight, still acting tough but secretly intimidated. "That's just talk. All you ever do is talk. Why don't you back it up with something, for once?"

"Because, I promised Emma I wouldn't."

"So, you're just gonna let a girl run your life for you? You must be even more pathetic than I thought you were."

"Watch it," Jay growled as he got right in Peter's face.

Peter was finally getting somewhere. "What are you gonna do? Come on, hit me! Do it! You know you want to! Just hit me!"

Jay was just about to obey Peter's command when he had a revelation. "No. You know what? I know your game. You are just waiting for me to lay a hand on you, so you can go running to Mommy Dearest and get me kicked out of school for fighting. But, I'm not gonna play this with you, right now."

"Why? Because, _Emma _told you not to?"

Jay let Peter's remark roll right off of his back. "So, what if that's true? It just proves that I have more respect for her than you ever will."

Peter tried to press the issue harder. "In other words, you're just not man enough to fight me."

Jay laughed to himself. "Is that what you think a man is? Someone who hurts anyone and everyone that gets in his way? You have no idea what it means to be a man. No idea."

"Please," Peter crossed his arms in front of his chest, "enlighten me then."

"Well, for starters, a real man would never hit a woman. Never. Ever." Peter fidgeted uncomfortably as Jay continued. "A man is respectful, trustworthy, strong…but not just in terms of muscle," he was unsure of what else to say so he finished quickly, "an-and about a million other things that you're not."

Peter rolled his eyes. "And you think you're all of those things?"

"Maybe not yet," Jay admitted, "but just knowing Emma makes me want to work on it. Which, is more than I can say for you."

"What makes you think Emma's even interested in you?" Peter kicked his arrogance up another notch. "After all, she's still protecting _me _by asking you not to fight me."

"She's _protecting _me from your spiteful ass, Momma's boy." Jay looked up at the clock on the wall, not interested in wasting anymore of his time with this cretin. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a class to get to."

As Peter was left to ponder Jay's words, the wiser blue eyed one finally made it to his class, now several more minutes late.


	18. Chapter 18

Later that same day, after school, Emma appeared in the doorway of the MI lab. Jay, who was already in the room, looked up and smiled at her.

Emma walked in with a purpose. "Did you get in a fight with Peter today?"

"Well, hello to you too," Jay quipped.

Emma sighed as she sat down. "Sorry, hi…Did you get in a fight with Peter today?"

"Yeah, sort of…but it's not what you think."

Disappointment flashed across Emma's face. "Did you start it?"

"Well, not technically, but that's not really the point."

"Then what is the point? That you two couldn't get over your macho selves long enough to consider the consequences?!"

"No, nothing happened," Jay explained. "Peter went completely psycho and tried to provoke me, but I didn't give in to him. All we did was yell…a lot."

Emma deflated a bit. "But, Manny said-"

"We were the only ones in that hall. Whatever Manny heard was a rumor spread by someone who probably heard us yelling and just assumed the worst."

"Really?" Emma's eyes softened.

"Yes, really."

"I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions like that." Emma looked down. "I just-"

"Don't worry about it." Once again Jay was surprisingly quick to forgive her. It was something she was definitely not used to. "I didn't trust myself to be alone with him either after what he did to you," Jay admitted, "but I just kept hearing your voice in my head telling me that you can't survive this place without me here." Emma blushed and looked up at him. "I couldn't…I wouldn't do that to you."

There was an intense moment between the two and then Emma blinked and broke it. "Um, what lesson were we on again?"

Jay smirked. "Oh, nice segue."

"I thought so too."

They both laughed.

…

Emma tutored Jay for about an hour and a half until they were interrupted as someone burst into the room.

"Emma, thank goodness I caught you still here!"

"What are _you _still doing here?" Emma asked curiously.

"I had some stuff to catch up on and I really need to talk to you, Emma."

"Well, I-" Emma looked at Jay.

"No, it's okay." Jay insisted. "I have to go anyway…So, I'll see you tomorrow?"

Emma nodded. "Yeah, okay."

Jay gathered his books and left.

Emma turned to the other person in the room. "So? What can I do for you, Liberty?"

"Well, as student council president, I am in charge of coming up with new school events and increasing morale among my fellow students."

Emma wondered what any of that had to do with her. "Okay…?"

"And," Liberty continued, "I found this project called 'Take Back the Night' which supports an end to violence against women. Naturally, I thought of you to organize it."

'_How could she possibly know already?_' Emma thought. "Why me?" she asked Liberty.

"Because, I saw what you did last year with your anti-violence campaign and after what you saw firsthand with Rick, I just thought you'd be the perfect person for the job." Liberty articulated proudly.

Emma was not really feeling up to organizing a huge event. "I don't know, Liberty. Why don't you just ask Manny?"

"Manny's great at producing a huge turnout and brainstorming new ideas, but when it comes to the actual organizing and following through, let's face it, compared to you, Manny is just sub par."

Emma was flattered but still hesitant. "Thanks, but-"

"Please, Emma?" Liberty pleaded. "Just think about it, okay?"

Emma reluctantly gave in if only to stop the begging. "Okay…I'll think about."

"Thank you so much! You'd be doing me a huge favor. There are so many things I still have to do before the year ends." Liberty handed Emma a huge stack of papers. "Here's the research I have so far. It seems like a really great cause."

Emma was lost in thought about the past week. "Huh, what? Oh yeah…I'm sure it is." She gave Liberty a half smile, picked up her things, and headed home.


	19. Chapter 19

As Emma came upon her front door, she paused for a moment. She had not even remembered walking home, after talking to Liberty, but somehow she was now staring at the entrance to the Nelson-Simpson house. She was so enthralled in the papers that Liberty had given her, that she was lucky to have made it home in one piece. This _Take Back the Night _thing really did seem like just what Degrassi needed to regain some hope that had been lost after the reign of Rick. Emma, however, was not yet convinced that she could handle reliving her pain even if it meant that others could then triumph over their own. She needed a second opinion on the matter and maybe a little push to do the right thing. She knew just where to get it…She walked inside her house and headed straight down to the room she shared with her best friend, Manny.

"Hey, Em! So…what did Jay have to say about the fight?"

Emma laughed at how unimportant that issue seemed now. "Just that there wasn't one. He said they just hurled a few verbal darts at each other."

Manny frowned. "Well, that's…oddly disappointing."

Emma walked over to her bed. "Not for me. I asked him not to fight Peter, so he didn't…for me." She dropped her huge stack of papers onto the bed and sat down next to them.

Manny curiously eyed the papers. "Okay, I'm going to choose to ignore your obvious thing for Jay at this moment-"

Emma cut her off. "Thing? What thing? I do not have a thing for Jay."

"Sure, uh-huh." Again ignoring Emma, Manny finished her sentence. "And, I'm going to ask, what is all that?" She gestured to the papers.

Emma rolled her eyes and followed Manny's eyes to the stack beside her. "Oh, Liberty found this event that educates and brings people together for an end to violence against women, she wants to do it at Degrassi, and she wants me to head it."

"Oh my gosh! Emma?!"

Emma cringed. "I know, it's totally the wrong time for this, right?"

"No, actually I think it's a great idea," Manny clarified.

"But, Manny, organizing this event is just going to make the memories of what happened with Peter even more vivid for me. I just want to move on from this, not be continuously reminded of it."

"Emma, what if someone else had pushed through their pain long enough to do something that helped you realize you were in an abusive relationship sooner or told you how to get help? Then it wouldn't have gotten as bad as it did and you would be far less hurt right now. Not just physically but," Manny placed her hand over her own heart, "emotionally too…" She paused and waited for a response from her, now very still and quiet, friend. "Come on, you know I'm right, don't you?

"Yes. Okay? You're right, I wish this event had come sooner and that someone else had made it their duty to help me become more aware…But, that doesn't change the fact that this is hard for me and that I don't know if I can handle it."

"I know you can," Manny encouraged. "And, don't you think if you could save even just one person from the same path you and Peter went down by making this event happen, that it would all be worth it?"

Emma gave Manny an inspired look. "Yes, it would be worth it. Thanks, Manny. That was just what I needed." She went to work right away planning Degrassi's first annual _Take Back the Night_ as Manny looked on, happy to see her best friend finally back to doing something she really enjoys.


	20. Chapter 20

The next day, Friday, at school, Emma was grabbing a few books from her locker before her next class, when she felt the strong presence of someone behind her.

She grabbed another book as she spoke sternly. "What part of, '_we're over_,' didn't you get?" She slammed her locker shut and slowly turned around.

To her surprise, Jay was the one staring back at her. "I wasn't aware that we ever started something," he slyly answered back.

Emma's face turned a nice shade of crimson. "I'm sorry." She hugged her books closer to her body. "I guess I'm just a little paranoid. Peter's kinda been giving me the evil eye today. He's actually really been freaking me out."

Jay put his hands on Emma's shoulders, gently, causing her to look him directly in the eyes. "Did he hurt you again?"

Emma shook her head, instantly putting Jay at ease. "No, nothing like that. I think he's just trying to mess with my head, ya know, because I broke up with him?"

"No," Jay fumed, "his problem is with me. He's just trying to stir me up by getting at you. He blames me for you breaking up with him. But, this was all him."

Emma had finally started to believe that. "Yeah, I know. And, I can handle him."

Jay nodded. "Well, if things get out of hand, you'll tell me, right?"

"Yeah, of course." Emma smiled, grateful to have Jay so closely looking out for her.

"Good…So, anyway," Jay began, changing the subject, "I was wondering if you wanted to…catch a movie or something…with me, tomorrow night."

"Like a date?" A huge smile grew on Emma's face.

Jay was so nervous that his first instinct was to backpedal. "No, no, not like a-" He cut himself off and steadied his thoughts pushing on the gas again. "Okay, yeah, like a date…So, what do you say?"

Everything inside of Emma was screaming for her to say, 'yes,' but then, just as quickly, she had a complete 180 moment and her smile faded away. "We can't."

Jay was caught off guard. "Sorry, what?"

"We can't date," Emma reiterated. "It just won't work."

"Okay, I get it. You just got out of a really bad relationship and you need more time, right?"

"No! I mean, yes," Emma had succeeded in confusing herself, "I do need time before starting something new, but you and I can never-…It just can't happen."

"But, Em, I don't understand. I thought we were-"

Emma tried to remain emotionless. She did feel something for Jay, but she also knew how reckless he could be. She just did not think she could survive one more guy being reckless with her heart. "We're friends, just friends. And, that's all I ever want us to be, okay?"

"Yeah, whatever." Jay got the message loud and clear, or so he thought.

Emma proceeded off in the direction of her next class. She managed to hold onto her composure just long enough to turn her back to Jay. She then immediately veered off her course to class and bolted into the closest ladies' room she could find. Once the door closed behind her, she couldn't hold on anymore and started to cry. She hadn't even noticed that the one person Degrassi girls could always count on to be in the bathroom when something traumatic was happening, was standing in front of the mirror fixing her hair.

"Uh, hun, are you okay?" Paige Michalchuk asked.

Emma walked away from the door and closer to Paige. "Other than the fact that I probably just made one of the biggest mistakes of my life?" She leaned her back against the edge of one of the sinks. "Yeah," she rolled her eyes and sniffled, "I'm just great."

Paige looked at Emma through the mirror as she continued to fluff her hair. "O-kay. Is this about Jay Hogart?"

Emma wiped her eyes and looked up at Paige. "How did you…?"

Paige smiled and turned toward Emma. "I have my ways."

Just then, Manny, while on an attempt to ditch class, came in. She looked from Paige to Emma. "Em, what's wrong?"

Emma turned around and looked at herself in the mirror. "Manny, I think I really messed up this time."

Manny spun her friend around to look her in the eyes. "What happened?"

Paige suddenly felt like an awkward third wheel. "Well, I'll leave you ladies to it then. But, Emma hun, trust me, any guy who can get this kind of reaction out of you is definitely more than just a friend." She walked out.

Manny looked pensively at her friend. "Emma, what's she talking about? What's going on?"

"I think I just blew it with Jay. What am I going to do?"

Manny wondered when it became the norm for Jay Hogart to pop up in their everyday conversation. "Wait. Start at the beginning."

"Jay asked me out for tomorrow night and I turned him down."

"What? Why?"

"I told him, I just wanted us to stay friends. That, that was all I could ever handle between the two of us."

Manny nodded. "But, the real reason is that you're scared of getting hurt again, right?"

"Well…yeah." Emma looked down. "And, I really do like him, but-"

"You don't know if you can trust any guy right now let alone the guy who gave you an STD?" Manny finished for her.

Emma sighed. "Exactly."

"But, Em, I think he really has changed and I know he really cares about you."

"So, what do I do?" Emma whined.

"I'm sure he'd understand if you just tell him you want to take it slow."

"But, how do I tell him? And, when?" Emma did not trust her own decisions anymore on this matter and was desperate for someone else to provide the solution.

"Well," it was almost as if they could see the light bulb go on in Manny's head, "there is supposed to be a raging party at some guy's house tonight. You know Jay can't resist a good party."

"Yeah," Emma rolled her eyes, "sounds like someone else I know."

Manny beamed with self pride in her party habits. "Well, what can I say?…So, do you wanna come with me?"

Emma never had much luck with the parties Manny dragged her to. "I don't know. I should probably just stay home and work on the _Take Back the Night _event."

"Come on, don't you wanna fix things with Jay and have a little fun while you're at it?" Manny argued.

Emma was clearly conflicted. Darn Manny and her powers of persuasion! "Well, yeah, but-"

"Just say you'll come," Manny commanded.

"…Maybe."

"I'll take it!" Manny put her arm around her best friend and they walked out of the bathroom and to their next class together.


	21. Chapter 21

Later that night, while Emma was busy trying to keep her mind off of Jay by diligently working on the project Liberty had assigned her, Manny was putting the finishing touches on her party look.

Manny stood in front of the mirror while doing her makeup. "What can I do to change your mind about going to this party with me tonight?"

"I just have too much work to do here."

Manny put her fiery red lip gloss in her basic black clutch and zipped it closed as she turned around to face Emma. "Yeah, well if you do decide to join me later, I put the address of the party along with an outfit I picked out for you, on your bed."

Emma looked over at the tight black hip-hugger pants and dark purple, long sleeve, top with a sweetheart neckline laid neatly out on her bed. "Manny, I can't wear that."

"Sure you can and you will look totally hot doing it. It'll drive Jay crazy and you'll have no problem convincing him to forgive you for ever turning him down in the first place."

"Well, thanks anyway, but like I said, I have too much work to do."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But, just in case, you have everything you need right there. And, if you do end up staying here, alone, _all _night…don't wait up."

"Oh, that's real cute," Emma said sarcastically.

"Okay, well," Manny looked at the time on her cell phone, "I've wasted enough time here trying to persuade you to join me at this party. The ball's in your court now. I'm outta here."

Emma tried to act unaffected. "Okay, I'll see you later."

Manny rolled her eyes at her friend's stubbornness and then without another word climbed out the window and headed off to the party…

…

…Less than an hour later, Emma realized that she could not concentrate on the event until she settled things with Jay. She put on the outfit Manny picked out for her and finished getting ready in a flash. Because her clothes were so wildly out of character for her, she left the rest of her look very calm. Her hair was down and straight and her makeup was light and natural looking. Before she had a chance to talk herself out of going to the party, Emma quickly climbed out her window and made her way to the house with the blaring music coming from it and the, already drunk, people scattered on the lawn. She entered the house and practically right away, found Manny chatting it up with some guy in the corner.

Manny let Emma catch her attention. "Emma, you came! I'm so glad you decided to have some fun tonight!"

Emma made a motion with her hands as if to push down Manny's excitement. "I'm just here to talk to Jay. Have you seen him?"

Manny shook her head. "No, sorry Em, I haven't."

Emma went looking for someone else who could help her find Jay. She pushed past a few people and came across Towerz.

"Hey, Towerz, right?"

Towerz nodded without even looking at her.

"Do you know where I can find Jay?" Emma asked him.

Towerz looked Emma up and down in a way that made her feel slightly uncomfortable. She started to tug at her shirt and suddenly felt like there wasn't enough fabric in the world to make her feel sufficiently covered up. Towerz nodded again, and then pointed to two people leaning up against a doorway behind him. Emma saw Jay and some random girl she did not recognize talking to him.

Emma was looking at Jay but addressed Towerz. "Thanks."

As Emma walked closer to Jay, she watched him brush the back of his hand all the way down the strange girl's arm as they talked. The girl smiled and tucked some hair behind her ear. Jay took a sip of the beer in his hand and then, as if he was already bored with the girl, took a look around the room. He met eyes with Emma, who was now standing just a few steps away. Jay smiled but Emma did not smile back.

"Emma, you look…amazing."

The girl Jay was with sized Emma up, scoffed, and then looked away.

"Save it," Emma spat as she rolled her eyes and then turned around to leave.

Jay chased after her, leaving the other girl with an annoyed look on her face. He grabbed Emma's arm in an attempt to stop her. "Emma, wait!"

Emma yanked her arm from Jay's hand. "No, I shouldn't have come!"

Jay was stunned by her quick reflex to escape his grip, but shook it off. "Why _did _you come?"

Emma huffed in frustration. "I…I don't know…What was with you and that girl?!"

"What? It's not like you and I are together," Jay replied, defending himself. "You already stomped all over that idea, remember?"

Emma definitely felt that burn and tried to give it right back. "Right, of course. You flirting with that girl was all _my _fault. And, I guess, I deserve the way it made me feel to see you all over her, too, right?"

Jay was definitely not a fan of being chastised especially when he, for all intents and purposes, do not actually do anything wrong. "I didn't know you were gonna be here…but since we are _just friends_, I don't think I should have to worry about how seeing me with other girls makes _you _feel."

Emma considered herself officially scathed by Jay's words. "You're absolutely right. It was stupid of me to think that you might give me a second chance or that I might actually want you to."

Jay cocked an eyebrow. "Is that why you came here? For another chance with me?"

"Yeah…But, I'm over it now. Why don't you just go back to your girl of the hour!" Emma stormed off in the direction of the front door.

Alex, who had overheard the whole unfortunate argument, delicately extracted herself from Paige's embrace and went outside to catch up to Emma. She hoped that her own experience with Jay could be of some help to the sullen blonde.


	22. Chapter 22

Alex caught up to Emma outside, in front of the house. "Hey! Emma! Wait up!"

Emma spoke under her breath. "As if my night could get any worse." She stopped and turned around. "Go away, Alex! I'm not really in the mood."

"Whoa, easy," Alex responded, taken aback by Emma's quick temper. "I just wanna talk."

Emma crossed her arms in front of her chest. "About…?"

"Well," Alex began, "we could start with what just happened in there."

"Come to rub it in?" Emma wondered aloud. "Little Causegirl got burned by bad boy Jay Hogart. She finally got what she deserved."

"Hardly," Alex answered honestly. "I just thought that you might want to talk to someone who knows how Jay can be."

Emma remained somewhat skeptical, but was in no position to turn down a little guidance. "…Well, as long as you're offering, I could use some help. I screwed up…majorly. And now, I'm just mad. I'm mad at myself. I'm mad at Jay for moving on so quickly. And, I'm mad that I still care about what he's doing with her in there. I still care about him. I still care about all of it, ya know?"

Alex nodded. "That Jay Hogart is a hard guy to forget about."

"Yeah," Emma wistfully agreed, "tell me about it."

"But, as for him having already moved on," Alex shook her head, "I don't buy that for one second."

Emma raised both of her eyebrows, surprised. "What do you mean? He was all over some other girl tonight."

Alex rolled her eyes. "That's just Jay's way of trying to ignore the fact that he can't have the one he really wants. Having real feelings for a girl is Jay's biggest fear. So, he tries to avoid it at all costs. Hence all the random hook-ups you've been witness to, since you met him. But, sometimes, despite every intent not to, he lets one past the surface and then runs to places like the ravine when things go sour, or in my case, he could just see the inevitable coming and just decided to ruin us before I had the chance to."

"But, Jay's a different guy now…or at least I thought he was." Emma wanted to kick herself for letting yet another guy manipulate her, if that was in fact what Jay had done.

"No, you're right, he is different now," Alex confirmed, making Emma feel a little bit better. "Which proves, all the more, that he has really fallen hard for you. If he thought that resorting to his old ways could help him get over you even just the tiniest bit, it might be worth it, to him."

Emma exhaled loudly. "I just don't know what to think about him. I mean, he was there for me and actually helped me out of a really dangerous situation, but just as I start to fall for him, I look at his sordid past and…It's just that the thought of being in a relationship with Jay Hogart excites me, but it also scares the heck out of me. And now, from what you've told me, it makes me even more scared. We could_ both_ get really hurt, here."

"Look," Alex said, "I don't know exactly what happened between you and Jay and Peter, and honestly, I don't really care. But, I'm here to tell you that Jay's been through a lot. Which means, he can handle a lot more than I think you give him credit for. You shouldn't be afraid to lean on him or to go through hard times with him. Life is full of hard times, it only makes the good times that much better. You know what I mean?"

Emma smiled while thinking of '_good times_' with Jay. "Yeah, I think I do…" Then, she suddenly snapped out of it. "Wait…how do you know so much about my relationships?"

"Uh, my girlfriend is Degrassi's one and only queen of gossip," she reminded Emma. "I know what she knows…whether I want to or not. But, like I said, all she knows is that one minute you were with Peter and then the next you were hanging with Jay and crying over him in the bathroom."

"Oh…" Emma looked down, embarrassed.

"So, what are you going to do?" Alex prodded.

"About Jay? I don't know," Emma answered. "I don't even know if he's willing to take another chance on me at this point."

"Trust me, he is," Alex confidently stated. "You just need to give him a few days to cool off, you know, mend his ego a bit. Then, talk to him. Tell him what you told me. And, as for tonight, you go back in there and enjoy the party."

Emma hesitated. "This kind of party isn't really my scene."

"Yeah," Alex nodded, "everyone in there knows that, Princess. But, life is short. You gotta live it while you can. So, loosen up. You might actually have some fun."

"Yeah, maybe…Hey, why are you helping me, anyway?" Emma suddenly questioned. "I mean, last time I checked, we were mortal enemies."

"I guess I'm a sucker for the tragically in love…But, don't get used to it." With that, Alex turned around and headed back into the party.

Emma stood there for a minute, thinking about what Alex just said. '_In love_.' Is that what she was? The only thing she was sure of was that it would take someone really special for her to not be afraid to embrace that particular feeling again.


	23. Chapter 23

**This is another one of my favorite chapters. Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

* * *

Emma walked back into the party. She had planned on finding Manny and trying to have some fun, but the first thing she saw when she went back in was Jay and that same girl having a very animated conversation. Emma cut quickly across the entrance way and headed straight into the kitchen, which had been turned into a makeshift bar for the party. As she tried to regain her composure, a random guy approached her.

"Can I help you mix a drink?" the guy asked her.

Emma smiled politely. "No, thanks. I'm just gonna get a bottle of water."

"Aww, come on, let me make you something better than that."

Before Emma had a chance to protest again, the guy had already poured a few things into a red plastic cup, none of which were anywhere close to being water.

"Here, sexy," he said while handing Emma the cup. "Give this a try."

Emma took the cup from the guy's hand and gave it a good, long stare. She kept hearing Alex's voice in her head, telling her to loosen up.

…

…Several drinks later, in a very short period of time, Emma came stumbling out of the kitchen, clearly three sheets to the wind. She took another sip of the drink in her hand and then tripped on some air, spilling a little on herself.

"Oopsies." Emma giggled, then accidentally grazed some guy's shoulder, catching his attention.

"Hey, sexy mama," the guy said back.

Emma turned around to look at him.

"Hows about a dance?" he asked.

Emma looked around and saw Jay still flirting like crazy with that same girl. She rolled her eyes and then smirked at the guy in front of her. "Sounds good to me." She put her arms around the guy's neck while still holding onto her drink.

They started to dance, but then the guy got a little too friendly and let his hands travel a little too far south.

"Whoa, easy, tiger." Emma moved his hands back up to her waist.

"Come on, relax." The guy replaced his hands too low for Emma's comfort.

"No, get off!" Emma shrieked as she threw his hands off of her.

The guy grabbed Emma again and pulled her against him. "Be cool. We're just having a little fun, right?"

Emma pushed on him, but he did not let go. "I said no! Stop!"

The guy became even more aggressive as he attempted to quiet Emma down. "Take it easy, babe. I thought this is what you wanted." He gripped her tighter. "Why don't we take this upstairs?"

Emma struggled to free herself. "No! Oww, you're hurting me!"

At that, Jay, who was just a few feet away, completely forgot about the girl he was with and hastened his way to Emma's rescue.

"Hey! She said no," Jay's voice boomed. "I think it's time for you to step off, man!" He towered over the guy.

"Hey, no problem." The guy released Emma quickly. "I didn't know she was taken."

Instead of being grateful, Emma acted resentful. "I'm not!" she yelled to the guy as he slithered away in search of his next possible conquest. She then turned back to Jay. "You didn't have to do that, you know?" She took a sip of the drink she had managed to still keep in her hand.

Jay sarcastically retorted, "Yeah, 'cause it _sounded _like you had everything under control there."

Emma rolled her eyes and began to slur her words. "Whatever, I don't need Jay Hogart, my not-boyfriend's help." She stumbled as she took a few steps away from him.

Suspicious, Jay took a whiff of the drink she was clutching. "Emma? How many of these did you have?"

"Only, like, two…plus six more." Emma chuckled at her own perceived hilarity and then accidentally tripped right into Jay's arms.

Jay caught her and then stood her back up. "Oh, Emma. Why did you do this to yourself?"

"Well," Emma attempted, "Alex said-"

"Wait." Jay shot a look across the room to where Alex was dancing with Paige. "Hey, Alex! Get over here!"

Alex walked over to Jay, annoyed. "You bellowed?" She noticed Emma falling all over herself and laughed. "Oh, wow, she's totally wasted."

"Oh yeah, it's real funny," Jay said sarcastically. "Too bad her parents won't think so."

"Oh, come on," Emma said to Jay, "you worry too much. They're not gonna find out."

"Yeah, Jay," Alex agreed, "you worry too much."

"Did you put her up to this?" Jay asked Alex.

"I told her to loosen up," Alex admitted, "but not to out drink most of the other people here. I also told her to stay away from you tonight, but-"

"That's what I was _trying _to do," Emma butted in, "but Mr. I-have-a-hero-complex just can't seem to leave me alone. I can take care of myself. In fact…" She met eyes with yet another guy, this one half decent looking, and grabbed him. "Hey, wanna dance?"

They started to walk away, and Jay lunged after them, but Alex held him back.

"Easy there, tough guy," Alex commanded while attempting to calm Jay down. "Tell you what, I'll keep an eye on her for the rest of the night, okay?"

"Sorry," Jay shook his head, "I can't let you do that."

Jay walked right up to Emma and the guy she was dancing with. He tapped the guy on the shoulder and as soon as he turned his head, Jay punched him in the jaw, hard."

"Jay? What the-?" Emma demanded.

Once the guy recovered, he gave one right back to Jay, which sparked a massive fight that everyone at the party started to join in on. Emma got knocked down in the crossfire.

"Emma!" Jay shouted. "Are you okay?! Emma?!"

Jay's voice, among other things for Emma, started to fade…

…

"Emma?" Jay's voice suddenly found Emma's ears.

Emma blinked and shook herself back to reality. "Huh? What did you say?" She realized she was still in the kitchen staring at that same _first_ drink, still deciding whether or not to take that _first_ sip. As Jay started to talk to her again, she remained extremely disoriented but, to her surprise, completely sober.

"I said," Jay began again, "I'm glad you're still here, because I wanted a chance to apologize for earlier."

Emma set the drink down and took a glance around the corner at the living room, expecting to see a major brawl, but everything seemed perfectly normal. "That's…sweet, but not necessary." She kept looking around with a very confused look on her face.

"Are you okay?" Jay asked, concerned.

Emma turned her focus back to Jay. "What? Oh yeah, I'm fine." She looked up at his bruise-free face.

Jay launched back into his act of contrition. "I honestly didn't want you to get hurt when you saw me with that other girl."

Emma allowed herself to be truly vulnerable for the first time in a long while. She took the attention off of the undeserved apology she was being presented with and spoke in a very tender tone. "Could you just walk me home?"

Jay's gorgeous blue eyes softened even more as he looked deeply into Emma's. "Yeah, sure."

"Great," Emma declared. "Let me just tell Manny that I'm leaving."

"Okay." Jay knew something was up with her but decided not to pry, at least not until they left the party.

Emma rejoined Jay after Manny told her that she would join her at home in a little while.

"All set?" Jay asked.

"Yeah," Emma nodded, "let's go."

They left the party together and started on their walk toward Emma's house.


	24. Chapter 24

On the way to Emma's house, Jay, after nervously fidgeting with his hands for a few minutes, shoved them into the front pockets of his jeans and decided to break the awkward silence. "Emma, I still want…That girl wasn't…" He took a deep breath and tried harder to finish a sentence. "I was hurt and I just wanted a way to ease the pain, but I know the way I went about it was dumb."

Momentarily forgetting the humbling daydream she had just recovered from, Emma snarked, "And, how _is_ Miss December?" Realizing, a few seconds after she said it, how that must have sounded, she smiled, letting Jay know that she wasn't seriously mad at _him_ anymore.

Jay relaxed a bit more. "Oh, that's cute." He gave Emma a small laugh. "The truth is, I ditched _Gloria,_" Emma raised an eyebrow and rolled her eyes at this notification that the girl, with which all of her disdain lied, had an actual name, "as soon as I saw you come back to the party. I don't have feelings for her, not like the ones I have for you."

A single tear escaped from Emma's illusion of strength and trailed down her cheek.

"Was it something I said?" Jay asked.

Emma flashed him a half smile. "Kind of." She wiped the tear away. "I mean, you make it really hard for me to come up with reasons why we shouldn't be together."

Jay was highly confused. "So, you're upset because you find me so irresistible?"

"Basically, yeah," Emma acknowledged.

Jay stopped walking. "You lost me."

Emma stopped as well. "I'm scared, Jay. I'm scared that I'm not ready to be in another relationship, but I already have all these feelings for you that I can't seem to ignore!"

"So, stop trying," Jay offered as a solution. "Take a chance. Take a chance on me."

Emma sighed. "I realized today that my issues are with myself not with you, and while I am so grateful to you for being the only one in my life that ever paid enough attention to know that things weren't right with me and Peter, I just…" She looked down, unable to finish.

"You what?" Jay wondered. "You can't give up just because you had one…" he started to count on his fingers, "okay more than a couple really bad experiences."

Emma leaned her back against a nearby light post and crossed her arms in front of her. "Thanks for reminding me."

"I'm just saying," Jay continued, "constantly living in fear of your next heartbreak is no way to be."

Emma looked up at the stars above them. "But, what if I just need some time to figure things out?"

Jay put his hands up in front of him defensively and took a step back. "Then I'll back off, no problem. But, you wanna know what I think?"

Emma gave him a pursed look, inviting him to answer, but warning him to tread lightly at the same time.

"I think," Jay said, "you wouldn't still be here right now if you weren't sure of your feelings."

"You wanna know what _I_ think?" Emma asked back.

Jay jokingly mimicked the look Emma had just given him.

"I think," Emma uncrossed her arms and walked up really close to Jay and put her hands on his forearms, "you're right."

Just as Jay could not handle just standing there, with her so close to him, without doing anything, any longer, Emma used him to push herself backwards, took her hands off of him, and spoke again. "But, we'd have to take things really slow."

"I'm pretty sure, I can handle that." Jay walked toward her and put his arms around her waist.

"Oh yeah?" Emma tested.

"Ye-"

Emma reached up, interrupting Jay, and pulled his lips to hers. They kissed each other with such intensity and released so much pent up passion, for each other.

When they finally broke for air, Jay asked, "What happened to really slow?"

"Well, I mean, we're not dead," Emma answered.

Jay laughed and then became serious for a moment. "Just know that you can talk to me…about anything. You don't have to hide how you are really feeling around me. I've had my share of issue invoking events in my life, so I get it and I'm here for you."

Emma took Jay's hand as they started to walk again. "You know, it's funny, Alex said almost the exact same thing about you."

Jay furrowed his brow. "You talked to Alex…about us?"

"Yeah." Emma smirked. "You got a problem with that?"

"I just thought you two were more the tear-each-other's-hair-out kind, than bff's." Jay said the 'bff's' part in his best high pitched, _valley girl,_ kind of tone.

Emma grinned widely. "Yeah, so did I."

They both laughed this time and continued on to Emma's house, holding hands. Emma rested her head on Jay's shoulder.


	25. Chapter 25

Emma was in her room going over some of the research Liberty had given her on the _Take Back The Night _event, when Manny came crawling through the window after finally leaving the party.

"Hey, Em!"

Emma looked up from her papers. "Hey."

When Manny finally got herself into the room, she started to dust her clothes off. "I'm sorry you didn't have fun tonight. I really thought-"

Emma put her papers down and smiled from ear to ear, causing Manny to stop in mind sentence. "I had a wonderful time tonight," Emma revealed.

"Whoa." Manny rushed over to take a seat on the bed. When she was sufficiently comfortable, she said, "Okay, start at the beginning and don't leave anything out."

Emma told Manny the whole story of the night she just had. There were several, 'Oh my gosh!'s and 'No way!'s from Manny's end.

Emma finally came to the end of her story. "…and then I kissed him."

"Oh my gosh, Em! No way!" Manny cooed one last time. "So, you guys are like officially together now, right? Because, your mood since Peter was really starting to bum me out."

"Uh! Thanks a lot!" Emma said, sarcastically.

"Hey, it's the truth." She was in true Manny form. Blunt and spirited. "You have been really depressing to be around, lately."

"Can you really blame me, though?" Emma asked.

"No," Manny answered. "What Peter did to you was seriously disturbed…But, I'm just glad you stopped ignoring your feelings for Jay."

Emma nodded. "Yeah, Jay and I are really happy, too…But, hey. What about you?"

"What _about _me?" Manny shrugged.

"Well," Emma started, "Craig goes away for one weekend and you're already putting it all out there with some other guy?"

"We were just talking." Manny rolled her eyes. "Craig talks to other girls all the time."  
Emma raised an eyebrow. "All you did was talk?"

"That's it," Manny replied as she drew an 'X' over her heart with her index finger.

"I guess that makes me two for two in misinterpreting conversations today." Emma really did feel badly that her judgment had been off for quite some time now. "…Sorry, sometimes I'm a little overprotective of Craig. He's just like an older brother to me."

"Yeah, yeah. I know." Manny had heard the Emma and Craig growing up together stories a hundred times before. At times, they even made her a little jealous of how close the two were. But, like Emma said, it was purely a sibling type relationship and, deep down, Manny understood that.

"…So, what happens now with you and Jay?" Manny asked.

Emma laid down on her bed. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

"But, are you guys _really _gonna take things slow?" Manny pried.

Emma smiled. "Goodnight, Manny."

The two best friends drifted off to dreamland.

* * *

**Sorry it is so short, but more is coming soon! Thanks for reading and reviewing!**


	26. Chapter 26

Emma and Jay had a cute next few weeks at school together. They were sticking with their tutoring sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school and hung out at the Dot and various other places on the other days. After just a few days they realized things really did not change all that much between them, since being officially together. Except for the whole kissing thing, they were still the same two friends they had been for some time already. Their feelings for each other were just out in the open now.

…

One Saturday afternoon Emma and Jay were hanging out on his couch, just watching TV. Jay was sitting at one end of the couch and Emma was lying across it with her head on Jay's lap.

Emma, while staying in her same position with her eyes still on the TV, asked, "Jay?"

While stroking Emma's long blonde hair as he had been for a while now, Jay asked back, "Yeah?"

"What are you thinking about right now?"

Jay laughed. "What? You mean besides the obvious?"

"Yes, I'm serious," Emma answered. "I want to know what goes on in your head."

"Well," Jay let his vulnerability show, "I was just thinking that I wish there was a way I could know with certainty that you would never hurt again as long as we're together."

Emma sat up. "You haven't heard?"

Jay looked at her quizzically. "Heard what?"

"I'm psychic," she smiled, "with an expertise in palm reading."

Jay turned the TV off and shifted in his seat. "You are." His tone, dripping with disbelief.

"Well, yeah. Do you remember a girl named Terri, who used to go to our school?"

"I remember of her," Jay answered. "She was the one who bore the brunt of Rick's," Emma flinched at the sound of his name, "evilness, right?"

"Ye-ah." A shudder ran through Emma's body.

"Whatever happened to her, anyway?" Jay asked, curiously.

"Even I'm not that good of a psychic." Emma shrugged. "No one knows for sure, but the rumor is that she got better and transferred to another school. But, before the saga that is Rick happened to her, she was really into fortune telling by way of tarot cards and, yes, palm reading. She taught me some stuff."

Jay was still in disbelief. "She did, did she?"

"She was the real deal, too." Emma's eyes widened. "This one time, she predicted that Manny would experience a troubling twist, or something," she gave Jay a seriously spooked looked, "and then she twisted her ankle!"

Jay widened his own eyes and gasped sarcastically. "No!"

"Well, if you don't want to know what's in your future, then I could just go," Emma teased.

Jay fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. "No, don't! I'm sorry, okay? Go ahead." He gave Emma his right hand, palm facing up.

"Hmm, let's see." She traced a line on Jay's palm with her finger giving him chills. "You're going to be very rich."

"Well, that's good to know." Jay inched a little closer to Emma.

"No, wait." Emma furrowed her brow. "I read it upside down, so reverse that."

"Ah, well, easy come…" Jay replied, nonchalantly.

Emma felt more confident this time. "I know this one's right." She traced another line.

"And what's that?"

"It says, you're going to have a long, happy relationship with an _insanely _gorgeous blonde."

"Huh." Jay pretended to think hard. "I must not have met her yet." He smirked.

Emma playfully whacked him on the arm. "You jerk." She crossed her arms in front of her chest and proceeded to faux pout, while looking away.

"I'm kidding," Jay said as he scooted closer to Emma again. "Hey," he reached up, placed his hand under Emma's chin, and gently turned her head back to him, "I'm kidding."

Emma uncrossed her arms. Jay moved his hand from her chin to her shoulder, then, continued to slide it down her arm all the way to her hand, putting his hand back into hers.

Emma took another look at his palm. "Hmph." She frowned.

Jay played along and over exaggerated some fake concern. "What?! What is it?"

"Well," Emma began, "it looks like there will be some hard times and pain along the way…" Her words did not match the seductive tone she said them with.

Jay leaned in toward her. "Awww," he replied.

Emma leaned backward, away from his approaching lips, just for a moment so that she could finish her prediction. "…But it's nothing we can't handle." She smirked.

"Oh, really? It says all that, huh?" Jay continued to lean toward Emma with one hand on the top of the couch to brace himself from falling on top of her and one hand on the couch cushion, on the other side of her body.

Emma teased him by slowly leaning all the way back until she was laying down, making him follow her down, and not letting their lips touch until she said, "Mmhmm." Then, she finally kissed him.

Jay moved his hands from their previous positions and wrapped his arms around Emma's small frame.

Jay, then, let up for just a few seconds. "If you could tell all that, you must really be good at this palm reading stuff."

"I told you." Emma giggled, and they went back to kissing.


	27. Chapter 27

...  
_He's coming 'round again_

_...  
_

Monday at school, Emma and Jay were talking in the hall before a class when the bell rang.  
Jay held one of Emma's hands in each of his. "I guess that sound means it's time for another day of English Lit. with Mrs. Kwan." He rolled his eyes.

"Oh, well, have fun with that," Emma teased. "I have a free period this hour, so I'm just going to go use the computer in the library to work on a project." She saw the jealousy in Jay's eyes. "I promise not to enjoy it too much, though." She put one of her hands on his chest while still holding one of his hands with her other one.

Jay gave his best pouty face.

Emma rolled her eyes. "Just go to class. I'll see you later."

Emma pushed off of Jay and turned to walk away, but he pulled her back, giving her a quick kiss.

"Later, gorgeous." He brushed some hair out of Emma's face before he let her go and finally entered his classroom.

Emma started on her way to the library smiling and humming happily to herself, when a familiar voice came from behind her.

"Well, you certainly move fast, don't you?"

Emma would know that voice anywhere and had hoped to never hear it address her again, but she wasn't so lucky today. She turned around, annoyed. "No one asked for your opinion, Peter."

"Yeah, well, I'm giving it anyway," Peter snipped. "Did you wait even one whole day before moving on from me to that loser?"

Emma started walking backwards toward her destination. "I don't see how that's any of your business, considering that's exactly what I'm doing. Moving on…from the mistake I made in choosing to date you." She turned around and continued to walk away.

Peter yelled after her. "You couldn't at least act like our breakup was hard on you too, for just a little while?"

Emma stopped and faced him once again. "And, why would I do that? It's not like you deserve to see it. But, it has been hard for me…to come to terms with all your lies."

"_My _lies?" Peter asked, flabbergasted. "What about you?! I knew you were seeing Jay while we were still together and this just proves it! You moved on way too quickly for there to have not been something going on between you two before our relationship was over."

"You know what? I don't have to listen to this anymore and more importantly, I don't have to defend myself to you." Emma stated confidently. "I know the truth and that's all that matters. Please, don't confront me like this ever again. I am so over you and your serious issues when it comes to how you treat the girls you actually like. And, I will tell any girl, that comes within ten feet of you, who will listen, exactly what you did to me and how you still seem to feel no remorse what-so-ever for it. You hurt me in more ways than you could ever know."

"Emma, I never meant for…"

"You never meant for what?" Emma interrupted. "For it to blow up in your face? Yeah, I know, but it did. I guess I was just lucky to have someone like Jay looking out for me."

Peter flinched. "That's not what I was going to say."

"Maybe not, but I'll bet it was what you were thinking. So, I don't care _what _you have to say anymore. And, for the last time, we're over." Emma spoke her next words slowly and very clearly. "You mean nothing to me…Get some help, Peter, and stop playing me and my friends." She turned and walked toward the library again.

"Emma?!" Peter yelled.

Emma simply shook her head and continued on her way.

…

A few class periods later, school ended for the day. Emma met up with Jay at his locker.

"Hey, boyfriend." Emma clung to Jay's arm.

Jay raised an eyebrow at her. "Hey, _girl_friend. Is everything okay?" He shut his locker and started to walk out with Emma.

Emma, noticing how tightly she was holding on to Jay, loosened her grip a bit. "Yeah, I just had a nasty confrontation with Peter earlier is all."

Jay's whole body tensed. "What?!"

"It was strictly verbal," Emma insisted, "but still a bit unnerving. He tried to make me feel guilty for being with you already. He still thinks that I was cheating on him with you and that how he acted is somehow justified because of it. But, his abuse started way before we started being friends. It just got worse when he thought something was up with us."

"Do you want me to set him straight?" Jay pounded his fist into the palm of his other hand. "'Cause you know I would really enjoy that. I'd do it, for you, in a heartbeat."

Emma smiled as she grabbed onto Jay's arm again, holding his hand with one hand and hugging his arm with her other one. "No need. I gave him a severe tongue lashing, so I don't think he'll be bothering any of us anytime soon."

"That's my girl," Jay praised.

"It's just weird being around him," Emma admitted, opening up to Jay a bit more, "almost like he still has some kind of control over me. I don't like how he makes me feel."

Jay slid his arm out of both of hers and wrapped it around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. "He can't hurt you anymore. There is no way I am going to let that happen."

They walked to Jay's car and he drove Emma home.


	28. Chapter 28

**This may very well be my number one favorite chapter of this fanfic! I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

* * *

Saturday night, Emma and Jay had just come out of a movie at the theater and were planning to go back to Emma's house for a little while. Her parents had taken Jack to the grandparents' for the weekend and Manny was out with Craig for the night. As they walked out of the theater and through the main lobby, with their arms around each other, Jay's eyes caught a glance at some girl with an extremely low-cut top. He gave her his well-crafted smirk and a classic guy head nod. His focus then casually went back to Emma as they walked to his car. The ride to Emma's was silent. They walked up to her front door together. Emma unlocked and opened it, flicked on the inside light, and turned back to Jay, who had been expecting to be invited in.

Emma's face was stoic. "Well, thanks for the movie. It was nice. So, I'll see you at school on Monday." She started to shut the door on him.

Jay put his hand out to stop the door. "Emma? Is something wrong?" He pushed the door back open.

Emma's tone remained emotionless. "What makes you think that?"

"Well, you've been acting kinda strange ever since we left the movie theater. I thought we were gonna hang out here for a little bit."

Emma shrugged. "Fine. Whatever. Come on in, if you want." She moved aside.

As Jay walked in and shut the door behind him, he asked, "What's going on with you? Did I do something to make you upset with me?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "Are you really gonna just stand there and expect me to believe that you're _this _clueless?"

"What are you talking about?" Jay asked, extremely puzzled. "I have no idea why you're mad right now!"

"I saw you check out that girl at the movie theater!" Emma accused.

"What girl? I don't even remember doing it."

"Right, because it's just second nature for Jay Hogart to take notice of all the trampiest looking girls in a room."

Emma's words stung Jay like the nettles on a plant of judgment and insensitivity. "Emma? Where is this coming from? You know you're the only one I'm interested in."

"No, I don't know that. Not always. It makes me feel like an idiot when you look at other girls in front of me."

"And, you're telling me that you have never absent-mindedly checked out another guy while you were with someone else?" Jay asked out of honest curiosity.

"…Well, then…" Emma was clearly frustrated both with the situation and herself. "…Then maybe we should just end this now, so we can both see these other eye-catching people."

Jay was shocked yet again by Emma's leap. "You know that's not what I want. Damn it, Emma!" Emma flinched as she had a flash memory of what action always came after Peter uttered that sentence. "Why is this such an issue for you? Can't you just trust me!?" He raised his hand to run his fingers through his hair.

Emma, not realizing what his gesture's true intent was, cowered back quickly, squeezing her eyes shut, and placing an arm over her face to protect herself. About a second or two later, Jay realized Emma's fear. She was waiting to get hit, but the hand Jay laid on her was gentle and kind. He pulled her arm away from her face and as she slowly opened her eyes, his eyes were right there waiting to calm her.

"Wow, Peter really did a number on you, huh?" Jay held Emma's face in his hands.

Emma looked down. "Yeah…he _really _did."

"Come here." As tenderly as possible, Jay wrapped Emma up into his arms. "Let's sit down, and we can talk about this." He took Emma's hand and led her over to the couch.

Emma was still kind of in shock, so Jay had to be the one to reopen the conversation.  
"Look, I know you have trust issues when it comes to the guys in your life and if you never believe another word I say, believe that I would never _ever _hurt you like that."

"I do believe that." Emma hugged Jay tightly. "I'm sorry I freaked on you." She let him go so that she could look him in the eyes. "It's just that when I was with Peter, he never made me feel comfortable in my own skin. It was like I was never satisfying enough for him, and I hate that it did, but it made me so self-conscious. And, the fact that I know your history with women, just makes me worry that you're gonna get tired of me and move on to the first more attractive girl you see."

Jay pushed all of Emma's hair behind her shoulders and then rested his hands on them. "You are more than plenty attractive to me." He kissed her on the forehead. "And, anyway, I'm the one who's been worried. I've honestly just been waiting for you to finally wake up and realize that you are way too good for me."

Emma felt ridiculous for not knowing how he truly felt. "Really?"

Jay smiled. "Yes, really." He took her hands in his. "I want to be good enough. I want to be that guy for you, but you have to let me try. You need a stable guy, and I'm just asking you to let it be me." He noticed Emma's eyes start to well up. "Checking out that girl was just a reflex, but I wouldn't even think of acting on it. I am so completely in," he paused for a second to catch her eyes with his, "to you. No one else even comes close, for me, and I'm sorry you didn't know that already."

Emma blinked back her tears and gave him a sweet kiss.

"It's just nice to hear it every now and then." Embarrassed of the way she had been acting, Emma laughed at herself. "Can we just start this part of the night over?"

"I think that's a really good idea," Jay agreed.

They both stood up.

Emma playfully acted like they had just arrived at her house. "Thanks for the movie, Jay. It was _really _nice. Do you wanna come in and hang out with me for a little while?"

Jay played along. "Yeah, I would. But, wait. You're not mad that I checked out another girl right in front of you?"

Emma raised an eyebrow while continuing to over act. "You checked out another girl? Huh, I didn't notice. But, I'm completely secure in knowing that she meant absolutely nothing to you." She smirked.

"Oh, are you?" Jay asked sarcastically as he started tickling Emma.

As Emma fell back on the couch, she sputtered, "Yes! I am!"

Jay kept tickling Emma for a few minutes as she giggled and squirmed around underneath him. Then, he stopped and they started making out for a little while, until it got kind of late and Jay went home.


	29. Chapter 29

One day after school that next week, Emma was in her room doing some event organizing, when Manny came home.

"Hey, Em!"

Emma held a pencil in her mouth while her hands were busy arranging pieces of brightly colored paper on a poster board. "Hey, Manny. Wha-" She cut herself off as she realized Manny could not understand her with that pencil clenched in her teeth. She then spit it out. "Sorry. What's up?"

Manny set down her clearly very heavy backpack. "Ugh, I have tons of homework today! I mean, gosh, do our teachers want us all to have nervous breakdowns before we turn 18? It's like they just love to pile on the work right at the end of the year. I mean, it's not my fault that they can't plan well and end up having to cram in everything they never got to at the very end." She looked over at Emma. "You know what I mean?"

Emma had stopped paying attention to Manny's little rant somewhere in the middle and was now back to working on her poster. "Uh-huh, yeah."

Manny decided to test her friend's focus. "And, I'm thinking about dying my hair neon green. It'll really drive Craig wild, don't you think?"

Emma nodded absent-mindedly. "Yeah, sounds good."

Manny stared blankly at Emma. "…Emma?!"

Emma finally put her attention back on Manny. "Huh? What?"

"You haven't heard a word I've said, have you?!" Manny whined.

Emma winced, feeling guilty. "No. I'm sorry. I just really need to get this done for tomorrow."

Manny put her hands on her hips and shrugged. "And, what is it that you are working so diligently on?"

"It's for the _Take Back the Night _event. The event consists of a rally and then a candle-lit march to a symbolic violence-free future. This poster is for the rally sign-ups. I'm going to try to encourage girls, who have been victims of abuse, to speak, sing, or even perform a skit about overcoming it." Emma glued down the final accents to the poster. "I just really hope that these girls aren't too scared to come forward and express their stories."

"You just leave the sign-ups to me," Manny gestured for Emma to hand her the poster, "and I'll have no problem filling up these sheets."

"That would be so amazing of you, Manny. It would be such a load off my mind."

"Then consider it done."

Emma hugged her best friend tightly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

…

The next day at school, Manny enlisted the help of Paige, whom you could always count on to know the most of anyone about everyone else's business. Together they, with the utmost sensitivity, encouraged people to sign-up and speak out. After just a few hours, they had filled the sign-up sheets with people who had made it through abusive relationships and others who just wanted to show support for the cause. Manny brought the poster to Emma after school in the MI lab, where she and Jay were just starting a tutoring session.

Manny walked in bursting with self-pride. "Okay, tell me I'm the greatest!"

Emma looked at the poster Manny was waving in front of her. "You got all of those people to sign-up already?! Manny, you _are _the greatest!"

"I know," Manny beamed.

Jay, trying to be a part of the conversation, asked, "Is this for that event you've been telling me about?"

"Yeah, I was worried that people would be afraid to sign-up and that I may not be the best spokesperson for talking them into it, so Manny offered to take care of it for me," Emma explained.

"That's right, and look, Em," Manny wiggled her eyebrows up and down. "I left exactly one slot for you and your beautiful vocal cords."

Jay tilted his head toward Emma. "I didn't know you sing."

"That's because I don't." Emma glared at Manny. "At least, not in public. I'm strictly an in the comfort of my own shower kind of girl. And, besides, I already spent hours on end talking myself into just giving a speech about what I've been through, so my part in this is covered."

"But Em, you're the host. You kinda have to give a speech. You'll surprise everyone, if you sing," Manny encouraged.

"I think you should do it," Jay added. "I think it will be good for you to express your feelings in a different way."

Emma sighed. "Alright, fine. I'll sign-up, but I still reserve the right to back out at the last minute."

"Fair enough," Manny allowed, "but you won't want to after you see how much all of these other performances promote strength."

Emma crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Yeah well, we'll see."

"I, for one, can't wait to hear you sing," Jay said, trying to break the tension. "I'm sure your voice is just as gorgeous as you are." He gave Emma a sweet kiss.

Manny suddenly felt awkward. "O-kay. Well, I'm gonna go. I'll see you at home, Em."

Emma nodded. "Okay, bye. And, thanks again for getting all those people to sign-up."

Manny left and then Emma tutored Jay for a little while, in between moments of kissing him, of course.

* * *

**Edit: Hello all! There are only a couple more chapters left in this fanfic, but I need to take a week long hiatus for an out of town vacation. Fear not though, because if all goes according to my plans, a new chapter update will be up in exactly one week (next Saturday evening). Thanks for reading and reviewing so far, and I hope that everyone will stick around for the conclusion of this story, coming soon.**


	30. Chapter 30

**Thanks for waiting for me to come back from my vacation! Here is the next chapter! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything having to do with the songs/lyrics included in this chapter.  
**

* * *

_Do you feel like a man  
When you push her around?  
Do you feel better now, as she falls to the ground?  
Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end  
As your lies crumble down, __**a new life she has found**_

_Face down in the dirt!_  
_She said "This doesn't hurt!"_

_**She said "I've finally had enough!"**_

...

About four weeks later, on a Friday night, all of Emma's hard work and advertising had finally come to an end and it was time to begin the event. Emma had been backstage trying to psych herself up for her opening speech, when she realized she was faced with a now or never situation as the clock stroke 7pm and it was time to start. She walked out onto the stage and was momentarily blinded by the stage lights as she made her way to the podium on the right side.

Emma took a deep breath before speaking. "Hello, everyone. On behalf of Degrassi Community School, I would like to welcome you all to its first annual _Take Back the Night_ rally and march immediately thereafter. It is my great pleasure to be your host for an evening of empowerment against domestic violence. What many of you don't know is that when our student council president, Liberty Vanzant, approached me to organize this event, I was hesitant at first. I wasn't sure if I wanted to relive the pain my own experience with being in an abusive relationship had caused me. You see, a few months ago I woke up to the realization that I was dating a guy who, when he lost his temper, caused me physical harm and that I shouldn't have to be subjected to that. This guy was just so good at convincing me that it would never happen again, that I believed him after every single time. He swore he loved me and that he didn't mean to hurt me, so I stayed with him. Then, two very special people in my life," she looked out into the audience and saw Manny and Jay staring back at her, with smiles, from the front row, "saw what I didn't and, with their help, I was able to take back control of the relationship and end it, without looking back." The audience clapped. "I was lucky to have those people care so much about me and I want this rally to be that 'person' for everyone here who hasn't had that awakening yet. No one deserves to be abused. We're all here tonight to draw from the collective strength and 'take back the nights' everyone deserves to have be free of fear and pain. So, please join me in welcoming our first brave soul to the stage to kick off this rally!"

The audience burst into uproarious applause…After a few more speeches and a couple of songs, Paige came on stage and sang _Poor Thing_. Then, Manny performed in a skit with a guy from her drama class. There were still more various performances and then suddenly there were only two left before Emma's song. She nervously peeked out at the audience from backstage and began to panic when she not only saw the packed auditorium again, but also saw one person in particular, who must have slipped in after Emma opened the event, and was now seated next to his mother.

She sent a frantic text message to Manny that read: **I need u bkstage!**

Manny found Emma pacing backstage. "What's wrong?!"

"What is Peter doing here?" Emma asked frantically. "He wasn't supposed to come."

"Well, his mom _is_ the principal," Manny reasoned. "She probably made him come with her."

"Manny, I don't think I can do this. I can't sing with him glaring at me."

"Just glare right back. Don't you wanna stick it to him once and for all?"

Emma nodded. "Yes, but-"

"Wait here." Manny was going to need some help if she had any hope of getting her best friend back on that stage. "I'll be right back."

Emma could not believe that Manny was leaving her in the middle of her crisis. "Manny, what-"

"Just hold on a sec. You are going to be alright," Manny assured her.

Manny discreetly went back to the audience and told Jay that Emma needed him. He briskly followed Manny to where Emma was.

Jay came up behind Emma, who had returned to pacing, and gently tried to draw her attention. "Em?" he asked softly.

Emma stopped in her tracks, and turned to him. "Jay! What am I gonna do?"

"About what? Are you okay?" Jay asked, concerned.

"Peter's out there!"

Jay was now calm and confident. "Good. This is your chance to finally prove to him that you control what happens between you two from now on."

"But, he makes me feel weak," Emma confided.

"You're the strongest person I know." Jay brushed a piece of Emma's hair behind her ear as he looked straight into her eyes. "Just go out there and own it. Do what you told everyone else here to do and take back the power over yourself that he stole from you."

Emma looked down, ashamed of herself. Here was this human embodiment of unwavering strength standing in front of her…believing in _her_, but she still was not sure that she believed in herself enough to share in it with him. "I don't know if I can."

Jay picked Emma's chin back up with his finger. "I'm gonna be right back here for you. Just think about all those times that he fooled you and how angry it makes you now. Use that emotion to your advantage and just let him have it through your song."

They suddenly heard Emma being announced as the next to go on stage.

Jay looked at her intensely. "I know you can do this."

Emma breathed out as she relaxed more. "Thanks. I really needed that." She kissed him quickly for an extra boost, grabbed her guitar, and walked out to the middle of the stage where a microphone and chair had already been set up. She sat down and adjusted the mic. "Hello again, everyone. I wrote this song a little while after I finally got out of my dangerous relationship. The song is called _I Survived You_. You know who you are."

Peter shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Emma took a deep breath and was about to play the first chord when she paused and looked off to the side wing where Jay was. He nodded for reassurance and she began to play the song:

_I see the picture clear now, the fog has lifted.  
The wool you tried to pull over my eyes was clever.  
Yeah you're gifted.  
But you forgot to dot some 'i's' and cross some 't's' along the way.  
I'm better now despite you baby.  
I'm stronger these days.  
Stronger._

_I survived the crash._  
_Survived the burn._  
_Survived the worst, yeah baby, but I learned._  
_Survived the lies._  
_Survived the blues._  
_Almost killed me, but I survived the truth._  
_And when you wrote me off like I was doomed._  
_I survived you._

_I can look in the mirror now._  
_It's been a slow awakening._  
_Haunted by a heart full of you, couldn't help mistaking._  
_That you could ever care for anyone._  
_Anyone but yourself. Hey yeah._  
_But you would have to have a conscience baby._  
_Good luck, I wish you well._

_I survived the crash._  
_Survived the burn._  
_Survived the worst, yeah baby, but I learned._  
_Survived the lies._  
_Survived the blues._  
_Almost killed me, but I survived the truth._  
_And when you wrote me off like I was doomed._  
_I survived you._

_This heart has been torn in two._  
_Cut and bruised._  
_With too many bitter endings._  
_I'll be damned if I have thoughts of you_  
_Rain on my new beginning._

_I survived the crash._  
_Survived the burn._  
_Survived the worst, yeah baby, but I learned._  
_Survived the lies._  
_Survived the blues._  
_Almost killed me, but I survived the truth._  
_And when you wrote me off like I was doomed…_

_I survived the crash._  
_Survived the burn._  
_Survived the worst, yeah baby, but I learned._  
_Survived the lies._  
_Survived the blues._  
_Almost killed me, but I survived the truth._  
_And when you wrote me off like I was doomed._  
_I survi-i-ived you._

The last line hauntingly echoed through the auditorium.

* * *

**That last song is actually by Clay Aiken. Thanks for reading and reviewing! One more chapter left!**


	31. Chapter 31

As Emma ended her song, thunderous applause commenced. But, for a few very intense seconds, it was as if Emma and Peter were the only two people in that auditorium. Emma seared past Peter's comfort zone with a piercing, 'don't ever try to mess with me again,' stare. Her unrelenting silent wrath put him so on edge that he finally got up and walked out, giving Emma the sense of power over him that she had been so deserving of. The rest of Emma's world suddenly came back into view. She stood up, and took a bow, then scurried off stage and into Jay's arms, after laying her guitar down near him. Jay lifted her feet off the ground and spun her around.

As he held her a few inches up in the air, Jay spoke right into her ear. "I am so proud of you." He put her back on the ground. "That song was amazing. I had no idea you could sing like that. And, why didn't you tell me that you write, too?"

"I don't know." Emma shrugged, not wanting to make a big deal about it. "I guess, because you never asked. It's not like I'm really serious about it, though. It's just a hobby."

"Well, that is some hobby," Jay confirmed. "…And, what was that zoning out thing about at the end? I'm pretty sure Peter is terrified of you now. Remind me never to get on your bad side."

Emma bunched up a chunk of Jay's t-shirt into her hand and pulled him closer to her as she spoke in a low, seductive tone. "Are you sure you don't wanna see my bad side?"

Jay cocked an eyebrow. "I know I don't want an angry song written about me."

Emma let go of him and started to straighten out his shirt with both of her hands. "How about I write you one full of rainbows and butterflies?" she teased.

Jay smirked. "Throw in your smile, and then I know I'll love it."

"Deal," Emma playfully agreed.

They leaned in to kiss each other, when they were suddenly interrupted.

"Emma!" Liberty screeched. "That song was awe-inspiring! …As was your speech. But, Em, if I had known what you went through, I never would have asked you to host this event. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," Emma assured her. "I'm glad I did this. It really helped me to deal with it all. Organizing the event an-nd this guy," she pulled Jay's arm around her back and waist, "that is."

Jay kissed Emma on the top of her head and pulled her closer into his protective embrace.

…

…When the rally ended, everyone went on the candle-lit vigil march around the school and then dispersed with hopefully a newly educated perspective on violence in relationships. Jay found a moment and pulled Emma away from all the well-deserved praise she had been receiving in spurts all night.

"So, Ms. Nelson," Jay began, slyly, as he placed his hands on her hips, "you just hosted an event that may have strengthened the bond of an entire community. What are you gonna do now?"

"I'm going out for coffee with the guy I love," Emma answered, confidently.

"Oh, yeah?" Emma's declaration caused Jay to grin widely. "Well, where do you wanna go?'

As they walked off, down the road, with their arms around each other, Emma replied, "Where ever you want. I trust you..."

**THE END**

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**P.S.-_Take Back the Night_ is a very real event that really does promote strength and shows women that they are not alone in their struggles against abuse. I am glad that I had the chance to attend one a few years ago, while I was in college. If you are interested and are in or about to be in college, look for the event on your campus.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! As always, thanks for reading and reviewing! **

**I am working on perfecting the first chapter of another one of my older fanfics. This one includes a little Semma as well as Jemma. If you are interested in reading more by me, please look for the title, _Crash and Burn_, to pop up on here in the next few days! Hope to see you there!**


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